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The View From Nathan's Bus

Symphony No. 2 in Perfect Grammar

Not all of the conversations I have on the bus are the gleeful bastardizations of syntax which I often record– and which are no...

No Longer in the Jungle

  This guy stumbles on like a rock tumbling through an unstoppable river. An imposing physical presence. We're somewhere at the bottom of Rainier Valley....

I Don’t Know What a Trolley is, Part I

  We're sitting at Third and Seneca northbound on the 3, a trolley bus. The passenger in front asks me what my favorite routes are. "I...

How do You Change the World? Thoughts on Violence

    Rainier and Henderson, the bottom of the Valley, deep in the living night. We're in the nerve center for gun crimes and drug distribution–...

Trying to Touch Something

  Nathan Vass is a photographer/filmmaker who drives for Metro. Learn more at nathanvass.com.   There are times when I can't tell if it's the world opening...

The New Normal

  This guy's smiling, let me tell you. I thought I smiled a lot. He walks up at Pine southbound, first stop on the 7,...

Blue and Red, Like I Don’t See What the Big Deal Is

"You got one more comin'!" I look in the right mirror, and it's true, there's a streak of red of blue, running for me at...

The Joy of Tough Choices

"You keepin' me smilin' with that deep sexy voice o' yours," says a gravelly ball of waning energy on the 358. She's over forty,...