#36: Defying gravity, Kanso bike, undercover Senator, Mr Akamine, Jack around town.
Throw these into the conversation.
I’ll be announcing some West Coast shows soon but before that, I’m back at New York City’s downtown bohemian hotspot, Pangea, for two shows on Feb 21 and March 14. I’m constantly chucking-in new material, new numbers and panicked reflections on our collective descent into the Musk-fuelled, fever dream Matrix. Come along and have a laugh at our increasingly mad, mad, mad, mad world.
1. Flying or falling?
Performance artist photographer Li Wei started making waves in the early 2000s with his distinctive images that seemed to defy gravity. Whether he’s getting thrown out the window of an office tower or kicked off the side of a skyscraper, his finely constructed action shots were viewed as full of symbolic power. A comment on the precariousness of modern times? A depiction of the terror that accompanies absolute freedom? The artist insists his work has always been apolitical but it’s hard not to sense some meaning behind such striking images.
The thing about flying or falling is that you ultimately have to stick the landing That’s where Li Wei’s work gets really interesting. Like a meteor crashing into the earth’s surface, he photographs himself head-first, smashed down into cars, lakes, piles of books, etc. It’s both hilarious and harrowing. This to me is what makes his work resonate so strongly with the moment.
Is new technology freeing us from outdated shackles, allowing us to soar to greater heights or should we brace for a terrible crash landing, head first into a rocky cliff? Are our creaky institutions due a thorough rethink to help us float higher to a world of greater equity or are they the only thing keeping tyranny at bay? Are we flying or falling? Li Wei posed these questions almost two decades ago. The answers are less clear than ever.
2. Ichiban Kanso Electric
Is it a sign of middle age that I find myself practically salivating over the new Ichiban Kanso electric motorcycle? So sleek, so compact, so sexy!
Ichiban’s electric bike is a sleek, retro-futurist dream, taking inspiration from the original 1982 manga, Akira, created by Katsuhrio Otomo. The perfect mix of '80s style and cyberpunk futurism, the bike is designed using the Zen principle of ‘Kanso’ - simplicity, and clarity over decoration. Now you can look impossibly chic cruising through the wreckage of our post-apocalyptic world.
Best of all, it offers a unique ‘Godzilla Mode’ allowing you to go from 0 to 100km/hour in 3.5 seconds and maintain it for another ten. Just enough time to escape those pesky futuristic Yakuza pursuers.
The future may look dark, but it looks cooler than ever.
3. Missing Person
Quick, name the vaguely familiar woman above? A daytime correspondent on CNN? The CEO of a second tier social media app? A University President who refused to condemn campus anti-semitism? Close. It’s actually New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand, recently re-elected to another 6 year term. I live in New York and didn’t even know she was running until I opened my ballot on election day.
She’s been Senator for almost twenty years and from what I can tell, her singular accomplishment was pushing out Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota after several allegations of sexual misconduct emerged but before any proper investigation was conducted. It was the height of the #MeToo moment and perhaps she didn’t feel it was the time for due process, but in retrospect seven other Senators who called for Franken’s dismissal have all expressed regrets. Not Gillibrand.
That was 2017 and in the years since Gillibrand has simply disappeared. Where was she during the recent elections? (Apparently working the fundraising circuit.) Where is she now as Democratic voters cry out for leaders to stand-up to the Trump / Musk regime? Missing in action.
Apparently she’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee and yet was practically invisible in the recent confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth. She’s also on the Senate Agriculture Committee - has she been visible raising the alarm about Bird Flu? If so, I haven’t seen it. She’s been equally ineffective as a member of the Joint Intelligence Security Committee at calling out the existential threat posed by loony Tulsi Gabbard as potential Director of National Intelligence.
While we’re rightly beginning to question the rationale for keeping ancient Senators in office, can we also start considering competence over incumbency? Can anyone name one thing she’s accomplished in her 16 years as a Senator? I bet a minority of New Yorkers could even name her if asked to identify the state’s junior senator. In fact, I’ve compiled a list of New York personalities with higher profiles than Gillibrand. Maybe one of them should run against her.
Claywoman, downtown character / motivational speaker
Ghostface Killah, Staten Island rapper from the 90’s
Peter Grant, celebrity lawyer
Ella Emhoff, nepo-baby fashionista
Willy Chavarria, designer
Frank Morano, overnight talk radio personality
Titus Burgess, taking over as lead in Oh Mary! on Broadway March 16 - April 6
Jeffrey Maddrey, disgraced police chief
Kathleen Corradi, New York City Rat Czar
Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty basketball player
Ladyfag, Queen Mother of NYC gay nightlife
Don Ward, shoe shiner (47th & 6th Ave)
Flaco, Central Park Owl, (deceased, Feb 2024)
4. World’s Most Stylish Man
As a palette cleanser, let’s get acquainted with Mr Yukio Akamine, 81-year-old Japanese menswear icon who’s recognised widely as ‘the most stylish man alive.’ The legendary fashion consultant, equally celebrated in Japan and Italy, is a proponent of classic silhouettes, monochromatic trousers, well-made shoes and accessories and the occasional cigarette. “You don’t have to read fashion magazines,” Akamine once said. “Open the window and look outside when you wake up.”
More than a stylist, Akamine is a philosopher whose style is informed by an immersion in food culture, architecture, and traditional design principles as well as classic menswear. With a rich understanding of culture and human nature, Akamine crafts a unique and enduring style that speaks to older and younger generations alike. “With beautiful things, it is all about learning to wait, being patient. People today, they don’t want to give it time. But it is like love, it is like a relationship, it is like learning, like all the things we admire, it takes time,” Akamine said. “Anything that happens in the snap of a finger isn’t good.”
Today Akamine oversees multiple projects from Incontro, his headquarters in Kanagawa Prefecture outside of Tokyo. His tailoring brand Akamine Royal Line is the perfect expression of his philosophy, mixing Italian and Japanese menswear influences with classic American Ivy style. If you’re in the neighbourhood, make an appointment for superlative made-to-measure service.
In the squall of modern life it can feel almost impossible to enjoy a few clear and open moments of calm reflection much less adopt Akamine’s daily hour-long stroll and immersion in nature. Nonetheless, I try to keep in mind his life philosophy applied as equally to dressing as it is to mundane tasks such as cooking rice, “It is not only about clothing but also about embodying elegance in your daily habits. It makes no difference how well you dress if you can’t live with elegance.” What a don.
5. Try to keep up
Elegance is perhaps not a word I would associate with my latest Substack crush, Jack Cullen. He’s more rambunctious, ungainly, sharp-elbowed and sexy than that.
Confession - I’ve known Jack for years, but his writing has recently hit previously unknown heights. His jaundiced Millennial perspective is equally hilarious and heartbreaking as he careens from sweaty club basements, to solo foreign travel hijinks, near-miss, B-celebrity car crashes and reflections on a middle-England, suburban upbringing. He’s somehow able to effortlessly drop riotous critiques of Gens X, Y and Z, while referencing E. M. Forster, Alan Hollinghurst, and Charli XCX, all mixed seamlessly into buzzy mini-narratives shot through with canny pop culture commentary and slinky repartee. Don’t expect to know all the names he drops. No matter, his quick-fire sketches are like punchy, insider gossip from a trusted guide into worlds you only half know but, thanks to his entertaining prose, somehow totally get.
And yet he’s no run-of-the-mill London gay scribbler. He’s part of a new wave of gay male creatives, pushing against the earnest nostalgia of ‘gay history’ while being equally suspicious of the empty, feel-good claptrap of the queer rabble. He’s got that ‘insider / outsider’ thing previously perfected by Joan Didion, Eve Babitz, Sandra Bernhard, Whit Stillman and countless other artists whose ultimate subject is ‘the moment.’
Jack Cullen’s Substack is catching on so you might already follow it but if not, get into it now. The book deal, the celebrated first novel, the film and all the rest of it is undeniably coming soon. Get on board and enjoy the ride.
Small Print:
Check out previous issues of QUALITY TIME here.
This occasional newsletter of curated content doesn’t just happen, so if you like it, why not throw me a few shekels? Simply donate via Venmo (@DavidMillsDept), PayPal (@DavidMills351) or Ko-fi.
Questions or feedback? Email: qualitytimewithdm@gmail.com.
Final word from James McMurtry
parting shot
