André Bacard's
Links to Heroes, Muses & Visionaries

** Links for Your Private Self **

• PLAYBOY's Interview with André about our lack of privacy in this Surveillance Age.
• Bacard's Privacy Page links you to people, groups and software to help you safeguard your privacy.

** Links About Conversational Salons **

• ANDRÉ BACARD'S "Conversational Salon FAQ", based on his "Tahoe Renaissance Roundtable", answers Frequently Asked Questions about why YOU might join a Conversational Salon (as opposed to a tanning salon) and how YOU can start a Conversational Salon.
• APPEAL of the Salon provides an overview of the Conversational Salon. In the words of this site, "Salons are incubators where ideas are conceived, gestated, and hatched... Salons are the frontiers of social and cultural change. They've been flourishing since ancient Greece."
• Conversation CAFÉ.ORG was founded by Vicki Robin, Susan Partnow & Habib Rose in Seattle, Washington to create a culture based on meaningful conversations, rather than small talk. Conversation Cafés exist throughout Canada and the United States.
• Benet DAVETIAN'S essay, "The History and Meaning of Salons", is a gem.
• Jim HAYNES, the "most well-known American in Paris", has hosted more than 100,000 persons at his Sunday dinner parties. Best of all, you can invite yourself.
• Mme. Germaine de STAËL (1766-1817) hosted the "salon of Europe" at Coppet, her renowned chateau residence at Lake Geneva. Her guests included the premier intellectuals, writers and nobility of her era. Her novel, Corinne, was the talk of the Continent and popularized the word "Salon" as used in this website.
• Wikipedia on Salons provides an excellent historical overview of Salons in Paris and elsewhere.

** Links for your Literary, Scientific & Intellectual Self **

• Isaac ASIMOV (1920-1992) is proof that witty, encyclopedic minds do exist. One publisher told Asimov to use pen names, because nobody would believe one author could have so much knowledge and curiosity. Asimov refused. Using his real name, he published more than 500 books on a wide spectrum of topics. Think of Asimov when someone tries to push you into a pigeonhole.

Author Michael J. GELB

• André BACARD'S "Ten Affirmist Principles". These affirmations are practical. To applaud them from the balcony is easy. To perform them on your daily stage is noble.
• Émilie du CHÂTELET (1706-1749) was a Rebel par excellence, who translated Isaac Newton's Principia into French and broke the French coffeehouse barrier against women. Her love affair with Voltaire is one of history's most memorable.
• Leonardo DA VINCI (1452-1519) is the most insatiably curious human in recorded history. Discover why Michael J. GELB writes in his book, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: "I see Leonardo's own life as a gem tossed into the pool of time that became known as the Renaissance, with his genius rippling on and on into eternity."

Author Ron GROSS As Socrates

• Richard FEYNMAN (1918-1988) was a scientist, teacher, raconteur and musician who solved the 1986 Challenger spaceship explosion with an o-ring and a glass of ice water. Feynman's genius to cut to the heart of problems has inspired countless scientists and students of life.
• Erich FROMM (1900-1980), author of the classic Art of Loving, was a psychiatrist who argued cogently that it is healthier to embrace, rather than to dodge, freedom & responsibility.
• Robert GREENE's book, Art of Seduction, explores the "magic" of our covert social world. Greene's politically incorrect pages are stuffed with ironies of the Night and denials of the Day. His book is filled with Italian spices.
• Ron GROSS, author of Socrates' Way and The Independent Scholar's Handbook, inspires Socratic dialogues (Conversational Salons) around the States from his base in New York.
• Carl HONORÉ, author of In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed, explains how our hyper, soundbite society undermines genuine communication. French Canadian Honoré links to two groups, both of which are based in Bra, Italy (I kid you not): Carlo PETRINI's Slow Food movement & Alberto VITALE's Slow Sex movement.

Carl HONORÉ Author of In Praise of Slowness

• Victor HUGO (1802-1885), author of Les Misérables, received this note on his 83rd birthday from Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize: "Great Master, long may you live to charm the world and propagate your ideas about universal charity."
• Aldous HUXLEY, author of Brave New World (a fresh treatment of human "happiness") and The Doors of Perception, was a visionary worthy of much study.
• City College of New York Professor Michio KAKU's book, Physics of the Impossible, and University of California at Berkeley Professor Richard A. MULLER's book, Physics for Future Presidents, provide delicious brain-food for you and your friends.
• Betsy PRIOLEAU's book, Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love, provides gutsy, lusty evidence that the top aphrodisiac is personal excellence. Prioleau offers inspiring case studies of women who carry the eternal flame of Aphrodite.
• Robert PUTNAM, a Professor at Harvard, wrote Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. His work helped inspire Joan Blades & Wes Boyd, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who started the multi-million member activist group MoveOn.Org.

Betsy PRIOLEAU Author of Seductress

• Lou Andreas- SALOMÉ (1861-1937) was a Muse for & friend of numerous great men of her era, including psychoanalyst Sigmund FREUD (1856-1939), philosopher Friedrich NIETZSCHE (1844-1900), and poet Rainer Maria RILKE (1875-1926).
• Jean-Paul SARTRE (1905-1980) was a prolific existential novelist, playwright, activist and philosopher. His life-long romance with Simone de BEAUVOIR (1908-1986) personifies extraordinary freedom, loyalty and courage. They are buried together in Paris.
• Leonard SHLAIN (1937-2009), an original thinker based in Mill Valley, California (until his death), wrote Art and Physics, The Alphabet vs. The Goddess and Sex, Time & Power. I was fortunate to consider him a friend.
• The SKEPTIC SOCIETY focuses upon Extraordinary Claims, Revolutionary Ideas and the Promotion of Science. It's motto is "Sum Ergo Cogito" ("I Am Therefore I Think"). The society demonstrates the great gulf between "cynicism" and "skepticism". It publishes Skeptics Magazine and offers regular meetings at the California Institute of Technology.
• TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference in Monterey, California where the world's leading thinkers and doers find inspiration. You can view videos of their speeches at this website.
• Francois Marie Arouet VOLTAIRE (1694-1778), the ultimate man-of-letters and activist, fought endlessly against the "divine right" of King & Church to give us freedoms which most of consider birth-rights. His novel, Candide, is a satirical masterpiece.
• Oscar WILDE (1854-1900), the British author, fought the hypocrisy of his age with a sharp wit. When I visited his grave in Paris, his tombstone was covered with lipstick marks—from his adoring fans!

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