ART AFICIONADO

Friday, August 15, 2025

MODELING: Emma Helena

Videographer: Amit Bar

Model: Emma Helena

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Born on August 14, 1979, Sayaka Murata (村田沙耶香) is a Japanese writer originally from Inzai, Japan. Her father served as a judge and her mother was a homemaker. Murata has described her childhood as unhappy -- she was shy, lonely, and began writing at age 10, drawing inspiration from science fiction and mystery books borrowed from her brother and mother. Her mother bought her a word processor in fourth grade after she attempted to write a novel by hand. After completing middle school, the family moved to Tokyo, where she graduated from Kashiwa High School and later studies art curation at Tamagawa University.

Murata debuted with the novel Junyū (Breastfeeding), winning the 2003 Gunzo Prize for New Writers, and subsequently earned the Mishima Yukio Prize, Noma Literary New Face Prize, and Akutagawa Prize for Kombini ningen (Convenience Store Woman) in 2016. Her style often merges everyday realism with speculative or dystopian elements, unflinchingly exploring taboo subjects such as asexuality, adolescent sexuality, and reproduction technologies.

In a recent The New Yorker article, Elif Batuman profiles Murata's unique worldview -- what Batuman calls "defamiliarization," using science fiction to reveal the absurdity beneath everyday life. Murata is depicted as an outsider who treats the world like an aquarium -- examining it with emotional distance and analytical clarity. Batuman highlights Murata's speculative work Vanishing World, a fictional universe where sex is replaced by artificial insemination and communal parenting -- an inquiry into biological norms and societal expectations. Vanishing World polarizes its audience -- readers either embrace the chilled speculative vision and its shocking climax or find such extremes off-putting.

ai generated, based on Vanishing World

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/14/sayaka-muratas-alien-eye

https://japanincanada.com/sayaka-murata/

https://www.wired.com/story/writer-sayaka-murata-inhabits-a-planet-of-her-own

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/09/sayaka-murata-i-acted-how-i-thought-a-cute-woman-should-act-it-was-horrible

https://eliflife.substack.com/p/the-scambusters

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sayaka-muratas-126334276

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Cage the Elephant - Come a Little Closer

Music Appreciation

"Come a Little Closer" by Cage the Elephant was written by lead singer Matthew Shultz and produced by Jay Joyce. Released on August 13, 2013, it served as the lead single from the band's third studio album, Melophobia. The song achieved significant success, topping the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and marking the band's fourth number-one hit on that chart.

The lyrics of "Come a Little Closer" were inspired by Shultz's experience in São Paulo, Brazil, where he observed the sunrise over the favelas, shantytowns. This moment led him to reflect on the lives within those communities, pondering emotions such as heartache, love, loss, and joy. The song's composition blends alternative and psychedelic rock elements, featuring a dynamic progression that mirrors the emotional depth of the lyrics.

The music video, directed by Matthew Shultz, combines animation and live-action footage. It portrays the band members on an alien planet, facing various monstrous beings. Notably, Shultz is depicted navigating out of a giant whale's stomach and riding a flaming lion through surreal landscapes. These vivid visuals complement the song's themes of perception and understanding.

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://music.fandom.com/wiki/Come_a_Little_Closer_(Cage_the_Elephant_song)

https://musicvideo.fandom.com/wiki/Come_a_Little_Closer_(Cage_the_Elephant)

https://www.discogs.com/release/5231492-Cage-The-Elephant-Melophobia?srsltid=AfmBOopfeYJTAEZ0DHVJpvISGIJrehfdtCjlR6Z9QAu4gy-oDCabmPu5

RANDOM WEDNESDAY: The New Yorker 1925

by Joost Swarte

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Ernestine von Kirchsberg

Art Appreciation

Ernestine von Kirchsberg was born on August 12, 1857, in Verona, the part of the Austrian Empire, and passed away on October 8, 1924, in Graz. She began formal artistic training in Graz in 1873 at the Landschaftliche Zeichenakademie under Hermann von Königsbrunn and advanced her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. There, she was taught by prominent figures including Eduard Peithner von Lichtenfels, August Schäffer, and notably Hugo Darnaut, whose influence steered her toward the atmospheric “Stimmungsimpressionismus” style.

Her career saw early public exposure, exhibiting at Vienna's Künstlerhaus soon after her studies. She later joined the group of "Acht Künstlerinnen," showcasing alongside peers like Marie Egner in early 1900s Vienna. In 1893, she was honored with a prize at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Von Kirchsberg made frequent painting expeditions across the Adriatic region, Styria, Carniola, and South Tyrol, and exhibited work in major cultural centers including Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Prague, and Graz.

Among her notable works are evocative landscapes rendered in both oil and watercolor, including "Waldbach im Sonnenschein," "Sommertag," and "Idyll," which capture tranquil rural scenes with atmospheric depth. Other recognized paintings are “Rast am Wegesrand,” “Dorfkirche,” and “Am Mühlwehr,” the latter featuring a mill weir and noted in a Dorotheum auction catalogue.

Sommertag

Idyll

Waldbach im Sonnenschein

Suburban Villa with Garden

A Mountain Stream with a White Rock, 1885

Sources:

Wikipedia

https://artvee.com/dl/waldbach-im-sonnenschein/

https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/8674477/

https://www.askart.com/artist/Ernestine_Von_Kirchsberg/11248124/Ernestine_Von_Kirchsberg.aspx

Monday, August 11, 2025

Julie Ann Clarke

Model Appreciation

Back in my teenage years, there was this unforgettable photo of Julie Clarke on rollerblades that stuck with me. She’s crouched down, pink cap pulled low, light green fitness gloves on, two watches stacked on her right wrist — like time itself couldn’t keep up with her. She looked like a rollerblading Barbie straight out of my imagination.

Julie Anne Clarke was born in Tucson, Arizona, on August 11, 1969, but grew up soaking in the sunshine of St. Simons Island, Georgia. From an early age, she showed serious skill as an equestrienne, riding with the kind of grace most people can only manage in slow motion.

At 18, she snagged a win in a swimwear pageant, then took first runner-up at the National Finals for the Venus Swimwear Model Search in Clearwater, Florida. That’s where a photographer spotted her and thought, Yep, she’s got “Playmate” written all over her. Julie later laughed in her Playboy write-up, “If I ever had a chance to be a Playmate, you wouldn’t have to ask me twice.”

Playboy crowned her Miss March 1991, then put her on the April cover for good measure. Her natural charm and bright smile opened doors to TV spots, commercials, and even a ’90s comedy flick.

On her Playmate data sheet, the 5'5" brunette dreamed of graduating college, visiting Australia, breathing fresh air, basking in the sunshine, and hanging out with animals — plus, she had a soft spot for men with “cute buns” (the non-hair kind).

She admired actress Tawny Kitaen, President George H.W. Bush, and pictured her ideal guy as a mix of strength and sensitivity, with a good sense of humor… and magic hands for massages.