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.
Some actors just radiate intelligence. You feel it in their eyes, their bearing, their enunciation. Think of Max von Sydow or Juliette Binoche. Natalie Portman, Henry Fonda. In the way we would never buy Chaplin or Gregory Peck as villains, I have real trouble believing these people playing dull-witted...
What I like
What you like
Why can't we both be right?
-Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes
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I'm wandering around outside my bus at the Rainier and Henderson terminal. There's another 7 parked in front of me. The general idea at terminals is that the bus parked in front pulls forward, creating more room...
Oh my goodness, I thought. It's him, it really is him. How many years ago was that? This I wrote in 2012:
"I'm gonna be a father soon," a Caucasian man tells me at Rainier and Brandon. He's young, tough, with sun-scarred skin, a lot of sharp edges and tattoos. But...
Tran's telling me an anecdote from earlier in the day. Have I told you about him? Tran's the scruffy Vietnamese guy who knows all about cars, a mechanic in another life or maybe still, and whose sister runs the restaurant on the corner. Despite his repeated and patient coaching,...
"Hey guys," I called out. This was a trio of folks about my age, milling about the Men's Shelter a bit after ten PM. In a Disney movie, they'd be the villains: sagging shades of tattered grey and black, folds of clothing encrusted in debris, pockmarked skin, uneven, hair laying...
"How's life," he asked. I appreciated the phrasing, which felt more genuine than other versions of the same query. It set a specific tone: world-weary but still intrigued in one's fellow man, despite differences. He was about my age, thirties, perhaps Eastern European, an educated air but a few...
For the sake of illustration, this is a monologue I wrote years ago. It was included as part of a piece in my 2013 solo show at Blindfold Gallery. Two men are working late hours cleaning a lab, and one of them pontificates as follows.
"I call it the Man Game. The...
I stood by the farebox, toggling the switches as the wheelchair ramp slowly came to life. It took an extra second. To the folks seated nearby I said, "this' probably the first time that lift has ever been used. Bus is so new."
"Pretty fancy bus, huh?" That's Solomon, a...