Daryl Bean's blog

I recently had the good fortune to pick up a copy of the Kinks Choral Collection, a new CD of classic songs by the highly esteemed English rock band The Kinks. The songs performed by the group’s main songwriter Ray Davies and a band (The Kinks disbanded in 1996) and a large choir.

Dear Mr. Ford,

It’s a gigantic thrill for me to know you’re reading this letter. I’ve been a fan of yours since I was 8, when I saw you in “The Empire Strikes Back.” May I call you Harry? Of course not, forget I even asked.

If you pay much attention to the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook (which I do, a bit too much if you ask my wife) you'll notice that Dick Clark's recent appearance on New Years' Eve is generating a bit of discussion. Comments range from concern ("He had such a hard time, the poor man") to ridicule ("Can you believe him?

Advice gets a bad rap. Granted, many times people get it at the wrong time and from the wrong people — for example, when your Great Aunt Flo tells you at Christmas dinner that you should cut back on the pumpkin pie because you look like you've been putting on weight, few would argue the "wrong place, wrong time" thesis. But, not ALL advice is boorish and non-constructive in nature.

My new favorite wWebsite on earth is Old Jews Telling Jokes (Oldjewstellingjokes.com). On Tuesday and Thursday of every week I look forward to a new 60-90 second video of an "Old Jew" (the rules of the site say that a joke teller must be at least 60 years of age — you can debate if that constitutes "old") telling a joke, which I assume has probably been passed along and retold dozens, if not hundreds, of times.

An open letter to my friends:

By the time you read this letter, you’ll all know about the horrible thing that I did. The holidays bring out something in me that I can’t control or explain, so I hope you’ll forgive me.

The year was 1988. I was a 14 year-old growing up in the tiny working-class hamlet of Girard, Penn., attending Catholic School and generally disliking most of my classmates (whom I'd been in the same class with for the past seven years) and teachers. You know, the average adolescent thing.

In my first blog post for Livingstontalk.com, I'm taking a cue from my new friend and editor Maria Stuart by writing something unique. I'm going to attempt what is known in music as a “mash-up,” or a combination of two familiar but seemingly unrelated subjects into a new and unique creation. I figure if Danger Mouse can do it with Jay-Z and The Beatles, then I can too. The subjects: the movies and motivational guru and infomercial king Tony Robbins.