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 interview very much falls under the "everything-you-always-wanted-to-but-were-afraid-to-ask" category. William Pennington interviews various local luminaries here in Seattle, and he's not afraid to go in depth. We really talk about everything here, and if you've ever wondered why bus tires aren't solid, what drivers do when kids keep ringing the...
He was hovering near the front. You remember AJ from an earlier post, the stone-faced youngster in "Everybody Need to Quit Acting Hard and S**t." I spoke.
"Said'joo graduated, right?"
"Notchyet. Almost."
"Almost. June of this year?"
"Yeeeeah."
"Awesome," I said.
"I can't wait myself."
His line was voiced as a declarative, minimizing any emotive tone....
A friend and I were strolling through the plaza at Fifth and Jackson, on our way to Daiso Japan. Incredibly, I'd never been, and was excited. The night was dark. Figures to my left and right, huddling in the gloom, a nightmare with the right assumptions. Has the effort...
Bare Naked Bravery is a podcast hosted by Emily Ann Peterson, the singer songwriter, author, teaching artist, and creative entrepreneur. On it she celebrates the lives of luminaries from all backgrounds around the US who've shown bravery in their own special and inspiring ways. I'm so honored to be...
Scattered conversations, shadow and light and primary colors, bodies and smiles sliding past each other. Look at this beautiful cavalcade.
Here's a tall fellow, love child of Kristofferson and John Wayne, his disheveled hair cascading out so jauntily it's downright dapper. This is inebriated bedhead done right. There are bloody...
Here are two figures running for my bus now, tumbling out of the American darkness. They are a man and a woman of proximate age running together, held down by their gear, a motley assortment of blankets and bags. Right now they're in between stops, and I have a...
Once again (as with Part I, here, and Part II, here--each a different operator), I was sprawled out on the late night bus headed home, exhausted but content, chatting it up with my friend the driver.
"How was your day?"
I sighed happily. I love when people ask me this question...
I'll confess to being annoyed with the man on first blush. I wasn't infatuated with the guy. Why?
He was the sort Walker Evans would've photographed were he alive today, the marginalized lot Manet would've included in his beggar-philosopher series, dressed in the tousled and bedraggled grunge which stands outside...