Nathan Vass
Nathan Vass is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night, where his community-building work has been showcased on TED, NPR, The Seattle Times, KING 5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. He has shown in over forty photography shows is also the director of nine films, six of which have shown at festivals, and one of which premiered at Henry Art Gallery. His book, The Lines That Make Us, is a Seattle bestseller and 2019 WA State Book Awards finalist.
This is a continuation of a story called "The Joy of Bus Driving Pt 1" .
The Kristofferson-John Wayne hybrid mentioned earlier, having long ago finished blessing the ridership, now pipes up after watching me in my element.
"You the best of the best, brutha," he rumbles. "You're pretty good, brutha." Puuurty...
He was showing me his app. I saw a series of vertical green bars laid across an X-axis.
Our shifts now concluded, after an evening of waving as we drove past each other, we could now finally speak.
Atlantic Base was mostly empty, and we stood in the deserted locker room,...
I used to save these. They're the bottom ends of transfer slips, leftover in the cutter after tearing them off for customers. I call them "transfer evidence," and they're exciting to me for what they represent.
There's a sentimental streak in me that overvalues certain objects. We're always leaving people,...
I've been out here long enough to watch people grow up. I've listened as they've built up concepts of self and culture I can learn from. Theo stood beside me now, once a high school student, now a thoughtful young man with the sort of maturity you don't often...
You know I love to write, but I also love public speaking! And some bus stories are just too much fun not to get up in front of a crowd and share. Like this slightly ridiculous narrative of a fight which happened on my 7 some time ago, which...
What a pleasant sensation, to come back to the textured urban haunts of South Seattle and be greeted with welcome, as if a returning friend. I've been scattered in my work schedule and absent entirely for the past week, focusing every iota of my attention on my film (I'm...
They looked like a lively bunch—a gregarious crew of five in their twenties, two girls with a stroller and a trio of boisterous boys in tow. They insisted the ladies get on first.
"How's it goin'!? Gentlemen, goodmorning!" I hollered, in the dim first minutes of the new day. I...
Abdi laughed. His perfect teeth shown in the reflective dark; it was one of those dry nights, clear, where the silhouettes of trees and buildings are not foreboding, but comforting. We stood outside our respective coaches, both one trip away from going home.
"Why do you like the 7? What's...