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In the Easy Chair with Randy Bean - The Westerly Sun

AGE: Do I get to select an age range? Can we say over 60, but under 65?

OCCUPATION: Co-chair, James Merrill House; board member, Stonington Historical Society;founder and CEO of NewVantage Partners, a national management consulting practice; author, "Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data and AI," (Wiley, publication date Aug. 31, 2021).

RESIDENCE: Boston and Stonington.

BORN, RAISED & GREW UP IN: Brockton, Mass. — The City of Champions.

RIGHT NOW I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF: Beginning year two as co-chair of the James Merrill House; finishing my first book.

I AM COPING WITH LIFE IN THE AGE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BY: Writing my first book. Doing a lot of walking.

MY PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Raising a family.

TOP ON MY BUCKET LIST: Now that I have written my first book, I will have to think of something new.

I ALWAYS CARRY: These days? My cell phone.

WHAT I WANTED TO BE WHEN I GREW UP: Poet or rock star. Neither happened.

MY HEROES ARE: Charlie Holland and Dave Erskine — local guys.

FAVORITE AUTHORS: Well, I have quite a few. I enjoy classic literature — Herman Melville ("Moby Dick"), Ernest Hemingway ("The Sun Also Rises") and F. Scott Fitzgerald ("The Great Gatsby"). I re-read Albert Camus' "The Plague" last March — it put this entire year into perspective for me. I've been reading some poetry too — James Longenbach (Merrill House fellow and Stonington resident), Dan Chiasson (Merrill House fellow), Carl Phillips (Merrill House lecturer), J.D. McClatchy (late, great Stonington resident and James Merrill literary executor), and of course, James Merrill himself. Also, recommend dipping into Langdon Hammer’s "James Merrill, Life and Art" — lots of local color.

BOOKS ON MY NIGHT STAND: I plan to re-read Marlon James' "A Brief History of Seven Killings." Great storytelling. He will be the Merrill lecturer on May 1.

Also, "A Whole World," James Merrill’s collected letters, just released this month. It received a fabulous review in The Wall Street Journal on March 6.

TOP THREE SONGS ON MY PLAYLIST: Bob Dylan, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”; Bruce Springsteen, “Incident on 57th Street”; Hall & Oates, “Sara Smile.”

LAST THREE SONGS I SELECTED ON SPOTIFY: What’s Spotify?

FAVORITE THREE MOVIES OF ALL TIME: Well, I am a Boston boy, so "Good Will Hunting" for starters. Then, "The Last Waltz" and "The Wizard of Oz." Sound about right?

FAVORITE TV SHOWS: "The Wire," "Jeopardy!" I don’t really watch TV.

FAVORITE RADIO STATION/SHOWS: Umm. Can’t name any.

TOP COMFORT FOOD: Do fried oysters and grilled corn count?

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES I USE MOSTLY: Social networking? Like the movie?

TRAITS I MOST ADMIRE: Punctuality. Brevity.

PET PEEVES: I’m easygoing.

FAVORITE QUOTATION: Perfect is the enemy of good. — Voltaire

MY FAVORITE THING ABOUT OUR LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD: Sunrise. Sunset.

CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: New adventures!

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I like to box (like with boxing gloves).

BEST ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED: Think different!

ADVICE I BEST LIKE TO GIVE: Hmm. I’m not good at giving advice.

IF I RULED THE WORLD I WOULD: Appoint a woman to take my place.

IF I WON THE LOTTERY, THE FIRST THING I WOULD DO IS: Make donations to The James Merrill House, Stonington Historical Society, SVIA, La Grua Center and Stonington Free Library, for starters.

I DRIVE A: I don’t pay a lot of attention to cars, but since you ask: Black 2016 Audi S5 Convertible — Massachusetts plates.

I WISH I DROVE A: Horse and buggy, just to turn the clock back to a simpler time.

ALWAYS IN MY FRIDGE: Caviar. Just kidding. I don’t think I have ever had caviar.

IF I COULD INVITE ONE SPECIAL PERSON TO JOIN ME FOR DINNER AND CONVERSATION, I WOULD INVITE: I would be shunned if I didn’t say James Merrill, so I’ll play it safe and go with that choice.

— Interview arranged and edited by Nancy Burns-Fusaro

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In the Easy Chair with Randy Bean - The Westerly Sun
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