Ken
@bludrone.bsky.social
Liberal and egalitarian values - Art - Music - Literature - Philosophy - Film - Politics - “ life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards “ ( Kierkegaard )
Miami Beach , Florida
Miami Beach , Florida
“Through these works, he documented his journey—his youthful vigor, his love, and early success, as well as the heartbreaking loneliness that marked his later years. These self-portraits not only reflect his personal struggles but also his artistic development “
www.thecollector.com/rembrandt-se...
www.thecollector.com/rembrandt-se...
Rembrandt’s Self‑Portrait Journey From Youthful Brilliance to Aged Poverty | TheCollector
One of the most famous of Rembrandt’s self-portraits shows him and his wife, Saskia, illustrating the famous Biblical parable of the Prodigal Son.
www.thecollector.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:12 PM
“Through these works, he documented his journey—his youthful vigor, his love, and early success, as well as the heartbreaking loneliness that marked his later years. These self-portraits not only reflect his personal struggles but also his artistic development “
www.thecollector.com/rembrandt-se...
www.thecollector.com/rembrandt-se...
“Carl Jung believed that within our collective unconscious are deep psychological patterns he called “archetypes.” These archetypes crop up in art and fairy tales. They drift into our dreams. They also surface in how we view ourselves.”
www.thecollector.com/how-archetyp...
www.thecollector.com/how-archetyp...
Free Will or Fate? How Archetypes Shape Our Choices | TheCollector
Archetypes shape us, but don't trap us. By understanding their power, we gain the freedom to rewrite our own stories.
www.thecollector.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:10 PM
“Carl Jung believed that within our collective unconscious are deep psychological patterns he called “archetypes.” These archetypes crop up in art and fairy tales. They drift into our dreams. They also surface in how we view ourselves.”
www.thecollector.com/how-archetyp...
www.thecollector.com/how-archetyp...
“Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas were never in any sense collaborators “roped together like mountain climbers.They were comparable, rather, to Picasso and Henri Matisse: rivals who could hardly take their wary yet admiring eyes off each other.”
hyperallergic.com/the-dance-be...
hyperallergic.com/the-dance-be...
The Dance Between Manet and Degas
What’s fascinating about Manet/Degas at The Met is the degree to which the work of each artist seemed to possess whatever the other lacked.
hyperallergic.com
January 8, 2026 at 12:57 PM
“Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas were never in any sense collaborators “roped together like mountain climbers.They were comparable, rather, to Picasso and Henri Matisse: rivals who could hardly take their wary yet admiring eyes off each other.”
hyperallergic.com/the-dance-be...
hyperallergic.com/the-dance-be...
“Beneath a surface of political volatility and technological acceleration lie two quietly deteriorating foundations: truth and trust. Their erosion is reshaping the global landscape more profoundly than the events that dominate headlines.”
time.com/7343078/frag...
time.com/7343078/frag...
The Fragile Foundations of the Intelligent Age
Amidst political volatility and technological acceleration, truth and trust are deteriorating, warns Klaus Schwab.
time.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:18 PM
“Beneath a surface of political volatility and technological acceleration lie two quietly deteriorating foundations: truth and trust. Their erosion is reshaping the global landscape more profoundly than the events that dominate headlines.”
time.com/7343078/frag...
time.com/7343078/frag...
“the contrast between the two utterly polarized styles demonstrates why Sargent is such a superlative pan-generational and pan-geographical talent “
hyperallergic.com/john-singer-...
hyperallergic.com/john-singer-...
John Singer Sargent’s Essence in a Brushstroke
Though it offers little in the way of Sargent’s artistic engagement with the city he called home for a decade, “Dazzling Paris” is a reminder of his uncommonly skillful brushwork.
hyperallergic.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:15 PM
“the contrast between the two utterly polarized styles demonstrates why Sargent is such a superlative pan-generational and pan-geographical talent “
hyperallergic.com/john-singer-...
hyperallergic.com/john-singer-...
“attaching himself to everyone from Lee Harvey Oswald to Marilyn Monroe to Charles Manson to Patty Hearst to Norman Mailer, with whom he had—“enjoyed” wouldn’t be quite right—the most bizarre and productive literary collaboration ever”
airmail.news/issues/2026-...
airmail.news/issues/2026-...
Larry Schiller, Norman Mailer, and the Making of "The Executioner's Song" - Part II
Their Marilyn Monroe biography sold more copies than anything Mailer ever wrote. He also believed it cost him a Nobel Prize, reports David Margolick.
airmail.news
January 6, 2026 at 1:12 PM
“attaching himself to everyone from Lee Harvey Oswald to Marilyn Monroe to Charles Manson to Patty Hearst to Norman Mailer, with whom he had—“enjoyed” wouldn’t be quite right—the most bizarre and productive literary collaboration ever”
airmail.news/issues/2026-...
airmail.news/issues/2026-...
“Through a forceful combination of intellect and style, her books found a way into suburban dens where young rebels were in hiding, longing for an artistic culture that might somehow match the political upheaval of the time “
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
Susan Sontag: A Critic at the Crossroads of Culture
The New York avant-gardist deftly navigated two intellectual worlds, somehow evading just about every label along the way.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
January 5, 2026 at 2:30 PM
“Through a forceful combination of intellect and style, her books found a way into suburban dens where young rebels were in hiding, longing for an artistic culture that might somehow match the political upheaval of the time “
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
“Over the past two decades, the Roberts court has pioneered and perfected the practice. Sanewashing—defined as “attempting to minimize or downplay a person or idea’s radicality to make it more palatable to the general public” newrepublic.com/article/2047...
How the Supreme Court’s Judicial Sanewashing Wrecked the Legal System
The Roberts court’s reality distortions have thoroughly disrupted the law, facts, and democracy.
newrepublic.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:28 PM
“Over the past two decades, the Roberts court has pioneered and perfected the practice. Sanewashing—defined as “attempting to minimize or downplay a person or idea’s radicality to make it more palatable to the general public” newrepublic.com/article/2047...
“Maltese Falcon may be regarded in terms of the narrative purpose it serves in the story; that is, to use a term popularized by Alfred Hitchcock to stand for any object that entices characters and drives plot, a “MacGuffin.”
crimereads.com/why-writers-...
crimereads.com/why-writers-...
Why Writers Are Always in Pursuit of the Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon may be thought of as a novel by Dashiell Hammett published in 1930 or as a trio of film adaptations produced between 1931 and 1941 (the middle of the three being a comedic mess r…
crimereads.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:26 PM
“Maltese Falcon may be regarded in terms of the narrative purpose it serves in the story; that is, to use a term popularized by Alfred Hitchcock to stand for any object that entices characters and drives plot, a “MacGuffin.”
crimereads.com/why-writers-...
crimereads.com/why-writers-...
“He would quickly move on to portraying single figures dwarfed by richly foliated backgrounds, a genre he called ‘portrait-landscapes’ and claimed to have invented.”
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/henr...
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/henr...
Henri Rousseau's wild dreams
Responding to a taste for the tropics, wild animals, and adventure, Henri Rousseau turned his dreams into fantastical, sometimes bizarre paintings.
engelsbergideas.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:33 PM
“He would quickly move on to portraying single figures dwarfed by richly foliated backgrounds, a genre he called ‘portrait-landscapes’ and claimed to have invented.”
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/henr...
engelsbergideas.com/reviews/henr...
“Bardot was more than a film star; she was a cultural icon who appeared at just the right time – as a forerunner and a surprise – to channel, like a conductor, the electric power of French femininity and also, by extension, of Frenchness. “
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
Brigitte Bardot was the face of France
She was a cultural icon who channelled the electric power of French femininity and, by extension, Frenchness itself.
engelsbergideas.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:29 PM
“Bardot was more than a film star; she was a cultural icon who appeared at just the right time – as a forerunner and a surprise – to channel, like a conductor, the electric power of French femininity and also, by extension, of Frenchness. “
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
“The quality and content of our dreams and our sleep could reveal an immense amount of information about our worries,memories,
the things we learn, and the condition of our bodies.Dreams should never be washed away with the morning splash of water to the face.”
theamericanscholar.org/scientists-i...
the things we learn, and the condition of our bodies.Dreams should never be washed away with the morning splash of water to the face.”
theamericanscholar.org/scientists-i...
Scientists in Dreamland - The American Scholar
What might our nightly visions mean?
theamericanscholar.org
January 4, 2026 at 1:27 PM
“The quality and content of our dreams and our sleep could reveal an immense amount of information about our worries,memories,
the things we learn, and the condition of our bodies.Dreams should never be washed away with the morning splash of water to the face.”
theamericanscholar.org/scientists-i...
the things we learn, and the condition of our bodies.Dreams should never be washed away with the morning splash of water to the face.”
theamericanscholar.org/scientists-i...
“the “blood of all those who loved him,” adding later that he “submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, then crushed them onto his canvas.” theamericanscholar.org/the-minotaur...
The Minotaur's Muses - The American Scholar
The romantic cruelty of a brilliant artist
theamericanscholar.org
January 4, 2026 at 1:25 PM
“the “blood of all those who loved him,” adding later that he “submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, then crushed them onto his canvas.” theamericanscholar.org/the-minotaur...
“in the decade after Scopes, biologists reconciled natural selection with Mendel’s genetics, an achievement known as the modern synthesis. And with biology in harmony at last, foes of evolution beat a retreat”
theamericanscholar.org/god-on-the-s...
theamericanscholar.org/god-on-the-s...
God on the Syllabus - The American Scholar
A century after Bryan took on Darrow, battles over public school curricula rage on
theamericanscholar.org
January 3, 2026 at 1:03 PM
“in the decade after Scopes, biologists reconciled natural selection with Mendel’s genetics, an achievement known as the modern synthesis. And with biology in harmony at last, foes of evolution beat a retreat”
theamericanscholar.org/god-on-the-s...
theamericanscholar.org/god-on-the-s...
“The young woman who’d spent her whole life following others became fiercely self-directed. Confidence replaced caution. Courage replaced uncertainty. Her personal grammar dropped question marks and now everything Decca did or said ended with a period.” theamericanscholar.org/making-troub...
Making Trouble - The American Scholar
A British aristocrat's leftist noblesse oblige
theamericanscholar.org
January 3, 2026 at 1:01 PM
“The young woman who’d spent her whole life following others became fiercely self-directed. Confidence replaced caution. Courage replaced uncertainty. Her personal grammar dropped question marks and now everything Decca did or said ended with a period.” theamericanscholar.org/making-troub...
“humor seems the best response to a thinker who concludes that life—an unrelenting experience of disappointment and despair, which “swings like a pendulum back and forth between pain and boredom”—is a business “that does not cover its costs.”
theamericanscholar.org/compassionat...
theamericanscholar.org/compassionat...
Compassionate Curmudgeon - The American Scholar
Why we must root ourselves in the real world
theamericanscholar.org
January 3, 2026 at 12:58 PM
“humor seems the best response to a thinker who concludes that life—an unrelenting experience of disappointment and despair, which “swings like a pendulum back and forth between pain and boredom”—is a business “that does not cover its costs.”
theamericanscholar.org/compassionat...
theamericanscholar.org/compassionat...
“Khrushchev let the US broadcast its tale until May 7, when he revealed that Powers was in custody. The American government was caught with its pants down and Cold War egg on its face. “
daily.jstor.org/unforgettabl...
daily.jstor.org/unforgettabl...
Unforgettable Fire: The U-2 Incident - JSTOR Daily
Reports on the May 1960 downing of an American U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union offer a case study in Cold War posturing and misdirection.
daily.jstor.org
January 2, 2026 at 1:05 PM
“Khrushchev let the US broadcast its tale until May 7, when he revealed that Powers was in custody. The American government was caught with its pants down and Cold War egg on its face. “
daily.jstor.org/unforgettabl...
daily.jstor.org/unforgettabl...
“Most of the donated art – which includes paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs and a sculpture – features the painter’s daughter Marguerite. “
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
More than 60 Henri Matisse artworks donated to Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris
Artist’s daughter Marguerite features in most of the pieces, kept in the family until ‘complete surprise’ donation
www.theguardian.com
January 2, 2026 at 1:00 PM
“Most of the donated art – which includes paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs and a sculpture – features the painter’s daughter Marguerite. “
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
“Mann began the war a staunch conservative. Yet by the early 1920s he was making speeches in defence of the maligned Weimar Republic. (In time, and in exile, Mann became the most prominent German opponent of the Third Reich.) “
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain
A vivid account of the creation of one of literary modernism’s greatest achievements
www.theguardian.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:51 PM
“Mann began the war a staunch conservative. Yet by the early 1920s he was making speeches in defence of the maligned Weimar Republic. (In time, and in exile, Mann became the most prominent German opponent of the Third Reich.) “
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
“They are the antithesis of the half-baked hot take and nothing like the machine-made flattery that’s now permeating so many informational environments. A platitude is a placebo for the mind; an aphorism is a wake-up call.”
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Aphoristic Intelligence Beats Artificial Intelligence
It’s not just okay for some things in life to be hard—it’s essential.
www.theatlantic.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:47 PM
“They are the antithesis of the half-baked hot take and nothing like the machine-made flattery that’s now permeating so many informational environments. A platitude is a placebo for the mind; an aphorism is a wake-up call.”
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Ken
“It was her combination of lucidity and ambition that made Sontag so attractive; hers was a “style of radical will,” and we didn’t understand then that her emphasis on style might also be her limitation.”
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
Susan Sontag: A Critic at the Crossroads of Culture
The New York avant-gardist deftly navigated two intellectual worlds, somehow evading just about every label along the way.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
December 31, 2025 at 1:31 PM
“It was her combination of lucidity and ambition that made Sontag so attractive; hers was a “style of radical will,” and we didn’t understand then that her emphasis on style might also be her limitation.”
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
“That’s why some experts prefer a different approach: adopting a “nudge word” meant to guide your mindset and actions over the coming year. It’s a touchstone you can return to to remind yourself of your values and vision, nudging you toward positive change.”
time.com/7339382/nudg...
time.com/7339382/nudg...
10 Nudge Words to Adopt in 2026
We asked experts for inspiration.
time.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:50 PM
“That’s why some experts prefer a different approach: adopting a “nudge word” meant to guide your mindset and actions over the coming year. It’s a touchstone you can return to to remind yourself of your values and vision, nudging you toward positive change.”
time.com/7339382/nudg...
time.com/7339382/nudg...
“The consequences of Kennedy’s appointment atop the Department of Health and Human Services have been tangible and severe: Historically eradicated diseases have reemerged, killing children; “
newrepublic.com/article/2044...
newrepublic.com/article/2044...
RFK Jr. Will Let Us All Die Just to Make a Buck
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is forcing his MAHA agenda on all of us—and it’s already getting ugly.
newrepublic.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:35 PM
“The consequences of Kennedy’s appointment atop the Department of Health and Human Services have been tangible and severe: Historically eradicated diseases have reemerged, killing children; “
newrepublic.com/article/2044...
newrepublic.com/article/2044...
“It was her combination of lucidity and ambition that made Sontag so attractive; hers was a “style of radical will,” and we didn’t understand then that her emphasis on style might also be her limitation.”
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
Susan Sontag: A Critic at the Crossroads of Culture
The New York avant-gardist deftly navigated two intellectual worlds, somehow evading just about every label along the way.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
December 31, 2025 at 1:31 PM
“It was her combination of lucidity and ambition that made Sontag so attractive; hers was a “style of radical will,” and we didn’t understand then that her emphasis on style might also be her limitation.”
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/susan-sontag...
“He was a skilled and innovative artist who took a step away from strict religious dogma towards a more subjective and expressive artistic vision. “
www.thecollector.com/titian-most-...
www.thecollector.com/titian-most-...
7 Most Important Works by Titian | TheCollector
In his famous Pesaro Madonna altarpiece, Titian modeled the Virgin Mary from his beloved wife Cecilia.
www.thecollector.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:50 PM
“He was a skilled and innovative artist who took a step away from strict religious dogma towards a more subjective and expressive artistic vision. “
www.thecollector.com/titian-most-...
www.thecollector.com/titian-most-...