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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhPjjCSSVbg
You may have seen the video above, about a fight on my bus. The video is new, but the event happened a few years ago. It's something I've been carrying around for a while, and right after it happened, I had no idea how to talk about or even...
Note on the above image: I have to note that this isn't a stock image--I actually took that photo, back in the mid-90s. I was 12 or 13 at the time, with no idea I'd one day be driving those strange buses with the poles on top....
---
What is the...
Our conversation was drifting on to other topics, but I needed to clarify something.
"Hold up. Did you say that game was at eight o' clock in the morning?"
"Yeah."
For us swing shift folk, making it out to an event at that hour is akin to your average joe showing up...
They're a fine bunch, the operators. Bus Driver Appreciation Day was originally designated in Seattle, and I'm not surprised. We've got good people here. Like all bunches, there's a portion of sour grapes. I recall a passenger blurting out one evening, after some apparent thought: "ninety percent. That's about...
Paul Constant is (among other things!) the co-founder of the excellent The Seattle Review of Books. He recently interviewed me for his site. We chatted about the blog and its future, my influences, the purpose of living and writing these stories, and so much more. Read all about it here.
Featured...
"But they ain't hardly gave him a chance yet!"
I chuckled ruefully. At this point my use for such a perspective is limited. A chance? What should I expect from a man who's tolerant--downright enthusiastic--about sexual assault, subjugation of women and people of color, religious discrimination, violation of due process,...
History is going to love this corner of our country.
By now you know that the Washington State Attorney General sued the Federal Government of the United States… and won. "This is the first time this administration has been reined in," notes Governor Jay Inslee. Think about the power of that sentence. Seattle...
The cultures of bus driving here at Metro are many and wide. This job, so much more than others, is exactly what you choose to make of it, and with that amount of self-direction the options are bewildering--limitless, really. Settling for whatever everyone else seems to be doing can...