Well Hullo, World

Photo by Ken Lambert for The Seattle Times.

If you read the blog, but don't read the paper, check out yesterday's front page article in The Seattle Times. I'm enormously indebted to Jessica Lee's reporting and Ken Lambert's photography.

If you read the paper, but are new to the blog– thanks for stopping in! There's a wealth of material here, ready for you to explore via the sidebar of story categories on the right, the bestselling book you can buy, and photography (yes it's all film!) and movie tabs above.

Check them out if you like, or explore this little Reader's Digest curation I've prepared for y'all:

Stories in Written Form:

• Two of the more impacting moments I've found on the street- the morning after Little Leon's mother died, And a eulogy for a woman who was hard to love but impossible to forget. And a third story, if you're looking for short and sweet.
• Bus life comes in many flavors: funny, heartbreaking, inspiring, silly, and, er, one-of-a-kind.
• Once it was easy to keep politics out of conversation; not so anymore. My words right after election day, but also just before: a reminisce of what the possibilities of October 2016 felt like.
• I was three blocks away from the 2015 Paris terror attacks, which you may know killed or injured 505 people. I was listed as missing by the US Embassy for three days and found by CNN through an international search spearheaded by my friends (thanks, lovelies!). Thoughts just after the attacks here; photographs here; looking back a year later here.
• I wrote film reviews when I lived in Hollywood, and still do occasional write-ups for this site. Visit the On Cinema page for in-depth analysis on technique, approach, and recomendations of films you may never have heard of, but just might love; or last year's bus driver movie, as reviewed by a (film critic!) bus driver. 
• The "Great & Terrible" 358 (now called the E Line) was once the Grand Poohbah of bus routes, and made the 7 look like Sesame Street; check out this breakdown, written during the route's last days. I loved it out there. Most of my blog stories from winter 2012/3 and 2013/4 stem from it.
• This past July marked the ten-year anniversary of my being behind the Metro wheel. Some ruminations, complete with embarrassing child photos.

Stories in Video Form:

• I tell stories around town. I know you have a second to procrastinate; here's a pick-me-up video speech about me, not an animal person, having some serious issues while cat-sitting in a luxury apartment.
• A fight on the bus and the context which came after.
• You read about Leroy in the article; here's me telling the story of how we met in further detail.
• Tons more here, including a TED talk and a lecture on how millennials (don't) communicate.

Podcasts:

• No time for a video? Try a podcast. Here I am pre-COVID on the Northwest Urbanist speed-talking about all things urban growth and transit in Seattle, and here I am post-COVID on The Urbanist talking about... well, just about everything, including COVID's impact on transit. Much more on the Press page.

Thanks for sharing in the hope of helping others, in believing in the possibilities of goodness. I started this blog thinking it represented a minority opinion. I'm so happy to be wrong.

Newcomers, thanks for your replies to the posts– which I will attend to shortly. I reply to every single comment on this site. 

UPDATES:

• 2018 was a banner year for me- I made a film, published a book, won a number of awards, and began popping on the radio and the telly a lil' more regularly. Here are highlights with commentary from that tumultuously exciting time.
  
• Highlights from 2020-2022– new videos, stories, essays on people and film.
  
• Drugs on buses: it's what everyone talks about now. Here's my take, as informed by my experiences on the street, and here are reflections on the recent UW Drugs on Buses study.