Friday
Then: Surfer Dude
Channing Dawson is perhaps the coolest guy I know. I remember asking someone at a trade show more than 20 years ago: “Who’s the guy in the biscuit-colored linen suit with the blonde/gray long hair?” (not my real words of course). That’s Channing Dawson, editor of HOME magazine in LA. Oh, and he's a surfer too. “Wow,” I thought, “To be named Channing, and look like that, and carry himself like that. I could never reach that status, Iowa boy that I am.”
I didn’t meet Channing at that first event. I can’t remember when Chan and I actually first met. Probably through our mutual friend Bill Crosby when Bill was at Sunset magazine. But Channing and I became fast friends after he ended up as one of the television industry's leading emerging media gurus at Scripps Television Networks where I was consulting.
Putting his good reputation on the line, Channing took a flyer on my start-up Internet professional services publishing firm by agreeing to partner with our company for the launch of LivingHome.com in 1995, a project that won us the first ever interactive marketing award in the advertising industry's premier competition.
It was Channing who insisted during my recap call with him a few weeks after surgery that I write this first book.
In January, 2002, with surgery 10 weeks away, Channing and his wife Whitney hosted me for a dinner in Atlanta at a place way too tragically hip for this old fogy. There was practically no talk about cancer at this dinner, especially after Chan made sure the wine kept flowing. But I never forget the glow – and no it wasn’t just the wine – leaving that dinner and knowing that I had some of the coolest friends in the world supporting me. ¶ 1:34 PM
I didn’t meet Channing at that first event. I can’t remember when Chan and I actually first met. Probably through our mutual friend Bill Crosby when Bill was at Sunset magazine. But Channing and I became fast friends after he ended up as one of the television industry's leading emerging media gurus at Scripps Television Networks where I was consulting.
Putting his good reputation on the line, Channing took a flyer on my start-up Internet professional services publishing firm by agreeing to partner with our company for the launch of LivingHome.com in 1995, a project that won us the first ever interactive marketing award in the advertising industry's premier competition.
It was Channing who insisted during my recap call with him a few weeks after surgery that I write this first book.
In January, 2002, with surgery 10 weeks away, Channing and his wife Whitney hosted me for a dinner in Atlanta at a place way too tragically hip for this old fogy. There was practically no talk about cancer at this dinner, especially after Chan made sure the wine kept flowing. But I never forget the glow – and no it wasn’t just the wine – leaving that dinner and knowing that I had some of the coolest friends in the world supporting me. ¶ 1:34 PM
