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    It Just Keeps Going: Nathan in New York

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    Really quick– I'll be participating in a panel for the famed and lovely organization TransitCenter this Wednesday. If you're in NYC, stop by! I don't often make it out there and would love to say hello.

    Here's TransitCenter's description of the event:

    The job of a bus operator is demanding. While getting a bus from Point A to Point B safely and on-schedule is their primary focus, their responsibilities extend beyond what the job title suggests. Operators answer questions from passengers, assist with fare payment, and respond to emergencies and passenger issues that may arise during their run. They possess a wealth of knowledge about transit operations that agencies should pay close attention to. Bus operators’ day-to-day interactions with the riders and communities that their buses serve give them a unique perspective on transit service and how it is (or isn’t) meeting people’s needs.

    What could agencies learn by listening to their bus operators? What don’t riders know about the difficulties of being an operator? And amidst nationwide transit operator shortages, what can agencies do to improve job quality and ensure that operators stay on the job? What can agencies do to better provide operators the opportunity to advance through the ranks? This panel will seek to answer these questions and recognize transit’s unsung heroes.

    I enjoy listening more than talking, and definitely get more out of the former, but I've been told I'm an effective blabbermouth as well, and I'll do my best to live up to that quality and contribute more to this exciting panel than taking up space in one of those office chairs. The first thing I'll be pointing out is that "getting from point A to point B on-schedule" is actually a lil' further down on my priority list...

    What is TransitCenter? They're a national group that "works to improve transit in order to make cities more just and environmentally sustainable... Our experience is that the greatest challenges facing transit are human, not technological, and that transit reform depends on high-performing public agencies and strong citizen-led advocacy. To that end, we support, inform, connect, and fund the civic and public leaders working to make transit better."

    How delightful. See you there. This event will be live-streamed, and available for subsequent online viewing as well. I'll keep you posted.

    RSVP to the event and learn further details here. 

    Photo courtesy of TransitCenter.
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    Movie Update: Hallo, Amsterdam!

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    If you've talked to me in the last two years, you've heard me talk about it.

    Well, festival submissions are finally underway, and they're paying off; we're an Honorable Mention for Best Drama Short at the Independent Shorts Awards, but more pressingly for this week, an Official Selection at the New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam, where we are nominated for Best International Short! 

    Given the content, I'm thrilled Europe is the first place to see the film. If you're checking in from Amsterdam– Hoi! Read more about the film's genesis here– why's it called Men I Trust? Why did I make it? What's it about? All that and more. Bedankt voor je interesse!!

    Watch a trailer for the film here.

    I hope one day to be able to be able to share it at a festival here in Seattle. Work on those SIFF programmers, if you can, about letting this puppy in despite its 33-minute length; films determine their own runtime, and this one told us it couldn't be a minute longer or shorter, never mind SIFF's stipulation for <30-minute shorts. Who do I have to buy a steak dinner to convince them it's a good idea to play probably the festival's first-ever 33-minute feature?

    Are you in Amsterdam? Buy a ticket to see the film! Block J, baby! Don't forget to vote for Best International Short!
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    It Just Doesn’t Stop: Hello, Tacoma

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    Here we go. I held off on publicizing this too much before the MOHAI lecture to avoid confusion, but this event is no less exciting, and in some ways more expansive: I’m part of PLU’s 15th Annual Visiting Writer Series, and will be taking part in a full day of events for students, faculty and more. For those of you in the South End looking for free (And fun! Yes!) things to do, two of the this Thursday's events are open to the public: 

    • An hour-long moment at 4pm called The Writer’s Story, in which I’ll show photos, writing, and an excerpt from my upcoming film, with discussion about all three mediums; 
     
    • And another hour-long moment at 7pm, simply called Author Reading and Reception, wherein I’ll present material I haven’t read before and talk more specifically about my world on the bus, and writing in the context of bus driving.

    Both of these events are on Tacoma’s PLU campus; details here. The book will be for sale, but more importantly– stop in for a chat! I don’t get out to Pierce County too often, and am looking forward to saying hello. It’s an honor to be hosted by award-winning author Wendy Call, and I’m thrilled to speak to her classes as much to the public.

    Hope to see you there soon!

    Where: Pacific Lutheran University, 12180 Park Avenue S., Tacoma, WA 98447
    When:     Thursday, February 27th, 2020
    The Writer’s Story: 4 pm in Anderson University Center, Room 133
    Reading and Reception: 7 pm in the Scandinavian Center
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    Um Wow (MOHAI: Thank You and Bibliography)

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    Well, that was amazing.

    I’m still riding the high of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being there. For taking notes from the front row; for sitting in the back leaning in; for finding a seat on the floor on the sidelines. 

    For making it a standing-room only event. 

    There’s no greater compliment. For bringing me home-baked bread! For travelling up from the other side of town through that traffic (I sat through it too!)… For standing in line for who knows how long, that we might have a chance to chat. I’ll never be able to express how much it means to me. For coming even though you started work at 4 A.M. that morning.

    For being kind in your congratulations, though you may have known the topic better than I.

    Every person I talk to at these things, every hand I shake and moment of eye contact made– it always feels like the tip of an unrealized iceberg. I always wish for more. To sit and hear all of your thoughts, share in our mutual glow; an impossibility with a crowd this large, but we can hope, or rather recognize, how much we appreciate each other's existence. You’re out there somewhere, being your fabulous self, and I am enormously grateful. It changes and energizes how I think about the world, knowing you and your smile exist. 

    Last night was my version of Jimmy Carter’s “Crisis of Conscience” speech (except not as good, but with a happy ending and more graphs!), and I put every ounce of my heart and soul into it. It’s everything on the subject I can offer at this point in my life, in speech form. Thank you for coming, and in such numbers, making it so huge. Thank you Rachel, for organizing this beast. Thank you Al and Tom, for putting MOHAI and I together. To the lovely tech crew. To Stacie, for gettin' that book out to the people!

    Video of the speech will be up shortly.

    And– I mentioned a nice fat bibliography, because it was that kind of speech– check out the PDF below! Because these things are important! So fun! Enjoy!

    Photos by Tom Eykemans.
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    Reminder: Nathan Lectures it Up, 2/19, 6:30-8

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    UPDATE: Source list added– click the PDF above. This document will make sense once you've heard the speech!

    I've thrown my heart and soul into this one. If it's the last public appearance I ever make, or by some tragedy it's the last lecture I'm ever allowed to give, I'll die happy. Everything I am and everything I can offer is in this hour-long piece.     This won't be your normal history lecture. They're letting me talk about whatever I want, and I've got some big surprises for you.

    ​I have a lot of events lined up this year (including a few that are further out– I'll be in Tacoma the week after next), but if you come to one, come to this one. This is it. This is the most I can possibly offer.

    Just like my cute lil' Metro bus... It's free! It's fun! It's for everyone!

    This event is part of MOHAI's History Cafe series;
    a Seattle Museum Month recommended event;
    ​a CrossCut event of the week;
    an AllEvents, Burbio, and Evensi listed event;
    a CoMotion UrbanNW listed event;
    a History Cafe meetup; and
    a Stranger Recommended Event. Here's the Stranger's writeup.

    Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)
    860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 
    Wed Feb 19, 6:30 pm 
    Free​

    Details & directions here.

    I'll post again after the event, but for this week forgive me if I focus all my energies on getting this one right! Hope to see you there!
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    기생충 Infiltration: Nathan on the Oscars 2020

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    Well, that was amazing.

    What an entirely vindicating evening. To feel the excitement and palpable groundswell of support in the room! Do you know that spine-tingly feeling of history happening now, not tragic history but joyful, a thing that changes your field, your world, forever? The recognition of what was happening then, that it might really get the Big One but who among us would dare to hope... It was a thought we had but did not speak, as we expected the expected. But what a treat instead to see the endearing figure 봉준호 go up time and again, running out of things to say and coming with ever more heartfelt words of gratitude.

    Thank goodness he isn't the sort to just list a series of names. Upon winning Screenplay he remarked on how although no film is written with an entire country in mind, it's worth celebrating this being the first Oscar South Korea has ever won; later he'd note his excitement at winning International Film in the first year that category had been renamed as such, in his appreciation of what that name change signifies; then, well, everything about that Director speech; and finally his stepping out of the spotlight in favor of other of the film's voices for the Picture award. 

    My favorite moments were 봉씨 recalling a formative quote by an inspirational filmmaker who turned out to be in the audience– his nominated colleague Martin Scorsese, who looked clearly moved in response; 봉 turning his Director speech into an appreciation of each of his nominated colleagues; his decision to speak in Korean, not adjusting for the event but having us adjust to him; Joaquin Phoenix's unbridled honesty, also on display at the BAFTAs last week; the surprised silence on presenters Spike Lee and Jane Fonda's faces in the seconds before each read what the Director and Picture envelopes contained.

    Somewhere along the course of the evening things transitioned from being an event about showbiz involving cinema to an event about cinema period, with only a smattering to do with glitz and glamour. Surfaces receded in importance, and the room, entirely unlike last year's disastrous final results, revealed itself for what it was– less stars with dresses who work in entertainment than, for at least the trembling now, thespians and craftspeople supporting their passions and peers, hidden from time to time under the flashy patina of well-tailored garb. The enthusiasm visible in the spontaneous standing ovations for these entirely unexpected wins.

    It was the night of the underdog in a way the whole room could be seen to feel great about. There were no losers last night, not when Sam Mendes grinned that grin at 봉 calling out his name, not with Marty's look of profound gratitude, not with QT's delight at being recognized as an advocate of lesser-known masters. The look on Todd Phillips' face, period. Not with this much seismic change happening.

    It was infiltration of genuineness, and I would argue it began with Icelandic cellist and Joker composer Hildur Guðnadóttir taking Score. See the entirely unaffected and authentic truth in her enthusiasm. People with less fame, like her, are better at doing this than those who've become Hollywood stalwarts. But we respond to truth no matter our place in life, we humans.

    Joaquin's words further reoriented the room toward unstylish, uncommercial and heartfelt sincerity, the sincerity of diffcult truths but also, more crucially, of forgiveness and joy and leaning toward goodness. In a few eloquently chosen sentences he steered us away from the well-meaning toxicity of cancel culture, knee-jerk reactionism, the jumble of pet celebrity causes and championed nothing more than the advocacy of constructive movements not through negativity, but through positivity. The kindness that comes from working together.

    He unwittingly but perfectly positioned our minds to appreciate everything that was appreciable about the legendary wins that would follow. What a thing it is, to see a room not expecting such historic change, but nevertheless reacting so naturally with such excitement and joy.

    ---

    It's been an incredible year for film. For more, check out my 14,500 word, 114-picture series of essays (index here) on 25 notable films of 2019.