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.
I remember being secretly excited, the two of us talking together on a midnight 41. Who started it? Probably him, but I was only too happy to oblige.
I was in the first forward-facing pair of seats and he was three rows behind me, on the bench over the middle...
“I think he's getting worse,” I said.“It couldn't get any worse than this,” Don snorted. “After this, there's just being dead!”
We were talking about a colleague of ours. I don’t spite my coworker friends who have terrible attitudes. I did when I started, because I was unintelligent. But a...
I forget her name, but I remember the enormous Barnes and Noble Booksellers that once stood here, inside the Starbucks of which she worked. Someday people won’t even remember there was a Barnes and Noble here. But today was before present became past, just another day in Westwood Village,...
Northbound 4th and Royal Brougham, after hours. It’s always darker over here, a zone hidden in the open wastelands of industrial warehouses and vacant business parks.
He saw me from the bus shelter and scrambled into a standing position, torn with indecision about what to do with all his belongings....
“Hey, it’s my guy!” I called out, with pleasant surprise. I only ever see him on the 7, on his way to the 107. What was he doing up here in the U District? He explained about a new job, a different restaurant; Ivar’s, if I recall.“Does this mean...
You remember John, of John and Valerie fame, from my book—the chapter called "Fighters and lovers, In and Out of Time." You can also catch us gabbing the afternoon away here. I usually see him as part of a group—a gaggle of friends, or with Valerie. Getting him alone...
Just a quick video for today, this time my reflections on why my book, The Lines that Make Us, is what it is, what its intentions are, and why I wrote it--in part to put a human face on what we so passionately discuss here at The Urbanist.
The...
Milan Kundera wrote that our memories are more like glimpses or brief 'scenes' than stories with beginnings or ends. They’re closer to photographs than movies. You’ve heard the phrase about life flashing before your eyes in the final estimation; or perhaps you experience something similar, as I do, prior...