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.
"Can I request a night stop?"
"Sure!"
She specified a block in between stops along the Prentice loop.* She was a demure east Asian woman I've seen before but never spoken with. Now that we were alone on the bus, she said, "You're probably the most nice driver I've ever seen. You...
His hair wasn't always gray, but it still grows, and now it's long enough to register a breeze. With that and the tuft of a beard he keeps nestled in the small of his chin, he could be a martial arts instructor from a seventies-era kung-fu picture, the sort...
Patricia and I were talking about something, at the end of the Prentice loop, out there at the end of the 7 line. She's a semi-regular. Tonight our conversation is interrupted by this gent, who other drivers and I have taken to calling "mista driva," since that's what he...
"IT'S ONLY FRIDAY BUT I'M ALREADY EXCITED FOR FOOTBALL ON SUNDAY!"
That isn't me talking. As you may have guessed. It's Mr. Weyling, described in an earlier story. The important thing to reiterate is his deafening volume, all the more heightened in tonight's otherwise completely silent midnight bus ride, and...
I'm inbound at Graham, shortly after 10pm. I'm looking for things to hold me up. It's very important to not be early. As operators, we don't get penalized for being late, since anything can make a bus late, but if we're more than thirty seconds early, it's over for...
He waved again, from the sidewalk now, as I drove up to the red light he was now walking toward. Sometimes it's awkward to cross paths again with someone you've moments ago bade farewell. But he was just happy at the additional opportunity to express gratitude. I enthusiastically threw...
Residual fallout from my Paris situation continues to make itself known on the bus. Yet another passenger informed me that her bus also erupted into cheers when the announcement went out that I was alive– I now learn it was not just a text message to drivers, but an announcement...
"Alright everyone, this is a 7, we're gonna take the 7 tonight all the way to Rainier Beach, all the way down Rainier. This bus goes as far south as Henderson, number 7 to Henderson, welcome aboard."
Kids pile on at Genessee. "Iss my guy," one of them says. This...