The Inimitable Rinko Kikuchi

The April issue of of iD features my very favorite actress in the world, the one and only Rinko Kikuchi. I think Rinko is beyond genius. I love her sullen pout, her fast shifting haircuts, her alliance with Chanel. I think she is the kind of global/cross-cultural super-star that mainstream media sleeps on. Expect to see many a post on Rinko at TI because this crush is serious! Rinko is on the cover of the "Gender" issue of iD. Very 90's that ...to do a "Gender" issue but it's interesting that the ten year cycle of errant androgyny is here again. Love the i-Date feature on iD's Myspace page that has a questionnaire with options ranging from Male/Female, Straight/Gay, Bi/Boy, Girl/ Man, Woman/Trannie, She-he/He-She, Mother/Other. TI is not mad at the polymorphous nature of that and plans to feed into it ferociously. I also am in deep love with idmagazine.com's flash video feature that allows you to speed-read through their entire issue. Check it out right now. It's just like being at the newstand!

...Speaking of London, I had a great phone chat with the guys from my current idee fixe, Hood By Air. I finally met them in person at the "Club Night" shoot for Henry Cruz's After Part Babies. Getting the visual in person pushed the resolve to collaborate. I was cheerleading the idea of a big comeback for NY's street/underground/club/ball culture as that has always been the hotbed of a certain texture that makes NY well ...NY. Studio 54, Paradise Garage, dance music, a heedless mix of beautiful black, white and latino beauties on the dancefloors, handball courts and downtown streets of summer. The heat, the skin, the boom boxes, the graffiti, the stifling subways...all that has to be filtered into some imagery at TI. No other city has that frisson or ( the friction ) and though everybody's writing NYC off as "late" , I have faith that the raw material here in Manhattan is unmatchable. I really feel like Hood By Air is incredibly perfect for all that. Viva the new kids!

...Otherwise, this has been the big return to NY week for me. After 7 years of living (quite happily) in Brooklyn, its just become necessary to return to the city. I'll still keep a foot ( and all my books, magazines and old clothes) in Brooklyn but literally, while in a lingering state of jet-lag, I moved just one table and 5 chairs into the new space. I sleep on a mattress on the floor and wake up each morning a completely blank space. No art books to rummage through. No TV. No Self-Service, V, Purple, ID. In other words no references and no catalog. Just the thoughts in my hand and a blank computer screen. It's a severe tabula rasa but I love the feeling of starting over from absolute scratch and rethinking what it is I do and how I do it. Tomorrow morning I have my very first booking in the new work/space which is to shoot and interview Sunniva for Spur Japan. I'll video the proceedings and upload it over at MDX, Models.com new premium space, but I'm really excited at the possibilities of playing with Sunniva one more time .

But what's fashion bits and bytes without a little hiss to sweeten it? At lunch on Monday I heard the amazing allegation that the 7th on Sixth shows were leaving the Bryant Park tents. "But where else can they go?" you might ask? As long as it's nowhere near the West Side Highway. The city's coffers must be overflowing to toss the NY shows out with such blitheness. That is, if the rumors prove to be true.