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.
You may have seen the ad I'm in about working for Metro. I'm linking it only because I thought you might find it of interest. I haven't seen it. You know how you just can't bring yourself to listen to your own voice in voicemails? It's a little like that....
I think the thing to do here is just present the conversation entirely, as it happened. I know the shorter posts are more digestible in our bite-sized culture, but I'm compelled to share the longer interactions with you as well. In the way I preserve profanity in the stories,...
It's an overwhelming whirlwind, bus driving. In thirty seconds you'll have someone who loves you, someone who hates you, and somebody who wants to know how to get to Everett. The following list below happened in the space of an hour, over and after each other, a mental marathon...
"You know what it smelled like, it smelled like those stink bombs kids use. It smelled like that."
I said, "those are terrible!"
Sometimes the conversations are deep, and sometimes they aren't. One of my closest friends, Brian, is a published author, used to teach at Harvard, gives lectures at writer's...
"How's it going?" I nod to a man clad in brown and black.
"I'm great," he says, even though he has a cell phone to his ear. Into it he says, "no, I'm talkin' to the bus driver. I jus' got on the bus. This guy's cool. Uh-huh. Yo, I'ma...
A twenty-something couple approaches the front, late at night at Othello Street. They're about to deboard.
"Um," says the girl. "Hey, can we ask you a,"
"Are you gonna ask how old I am? Every one asks that."
"Haha, well, you do look really young. No, we wanted to ask, how are...
Rainier and Othello is not an inviting place. You know the landscape: one and two story buildings, mostly residential, with buckling and otherwise eroded and collapsing sidewalks. There's the auto parts store, with the owner standing just inside the doorway with his hands on his hips, shaking his head...
Her profile is distinctive. Short, compact, fit, young spirit in an older body, with that angled hair at the front. Yeah, it's gotta be her, driving the 14, heading south on Third. Tracy. I'm right behind her in my own bus, pulling into Union. Seeing another driver you love...