Blogfather Profile

I waited all day for Dave to link to this, but it never happened, so allow me:  Dwight Jaynes profiled The Blogfather, Henry Abbott, on PortlandTribune.com. 

Mr. Jaynes mentions that Mr. Abbott met him in his Tribune office; in related news, I invited Mr. Abbott to my office and he accepted, except that my little brothers were playing ping pong all afternoon (mom's basement, after all) so I had to cancel.  Tough break, I have admired Henry for years and had really hoped to meet him.  Maybe next time.

There are some great tidbits in the short profile, not least of which is a great picture showing an unshaven Abbott being questioned by police on a MAX train (or so it appears). 

My favorite part was this...

[Henry] graduated from Portland's Oregon Episcopal School at the age of 15. It's not that he was in a big hurry to get out of high school, but he thought his family was going to move to England.

The family didn't go, and Henry decided to move on to either New York University or Colorado College. He liked NYU because it was in New York, but couldn't quite figure out how he was going to pay tuition at perhaps the most expensive university in the country.

The mental image of the Blogfather, at 16 years of age, surrounded by film geek freshmen dressed head to toe in black, in an NYU dorm room is absolutely, 100%, completely priceless.

Drama Dork 1: "Personally, I think Albee has had a much bigger reach, at least over the last 2 decades."

Henry: "My glasses are made from the same material as Buck Williams' goggles.  My parents had them special ordered. You can't find these at Lenscrafters."

Drama Dork 2: "Oh heavens. Let's go watch The Piano, I don't know what this kid is talking about."

That conversation actually happened. At least twice. Sorry Henry for bringing back bad memories.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS Speaking of DJ, word on the street is that John Canzano's Darius Miles tirade didn't fall on deaf ears. Stay tuned.