Part Three: An Interview with Bobi (Nicholas) Petch

jan.s: Bobi, as I've said before both you and Dinah Lee had 'the London look' more so than anyone else I can remember in Sydney in the '60s'. In fact you had your own look...and exuded cool...can you tell us about your interest in fashion and about the influences of any NZ designers...?

Bobi:We made our own clothes as the Boutiques as such, didn't happen until 1962. Our stores carried great fabrics, and of course you chose the pattern, and could change things around as you went, of course we loved the mini - it got more mini by the minute...In Auckland The Casual Shop was really our first Mod Boutique, but only earning 4 - 5 Pounds a week, could only afford to look then, or buy on sale.  

Dinah hadn't arrived in Auckland, and Jacky Holme and I used to do summer and winter fashion parades, we had that look. 

Bobi, Billy Thorpe, Jacky Holme

Jacky had already cut my hair into the bob, with huge dressmaking shears - Dinah put that Mod look on the map here in NZ and of course Oz...too.  

The Casual Shop only made 1 of every garment Diana Colmore-Williams (Owner) helped Dinah to choose, long Mod Maxi dresses, long shorts with Baby doll tops, shoes we had made in those days from John Greers in Vulcan Lane. Mini dresses etc... 

My look was always bright, young and cute with hair to match, the long surfy hair became the Bob, before that backcombed birds nest, even a Hendrix perm and of course petals...  Pointy toe Gamins (shoes) were terribly us too..

Several other Boutiques sprung up in Auckland, Hadney Five, the owner worked for The Casual Shop for a while, and moved on... 

Arriving back in Sydney end of '64, with the clothes I had made, mainly Baby Doll dresses worn with white tights or lace tights, even bags made in matching fabrics... I started my job as a House Model. 

Still had my own look - Of course you could hear people laughing out loud in the streets of Auckland and Sydney, or would just stare and smile.

Di arrived late 1965 to live and The Casual Shop was yet to open its doors in Sydney...arriving in 1966 which I managed... Not that I could afford fashion magazines but Mary Quant was the Mod Queen and I was a follower of her London Look.  

The only other sort of Shop in Sydney was SNOB in the Arcade, between King and Rowe Streets, owned by John and Merivale that a younger crowd shopped at.. He was very interested in our Shop on King Street - whenever a new shipment arrived certain customers would be rung so they could have first choice....and had plenty of $$$ to spend...

As Di arrived with plenty of day wear we just concentrated on her stage clothes, getting zanier an zanyrr made by The Casual shop -While England had Mary Quant & the Beatles, NZ had it's own Zany poppet in the form of Pop Star Dinah Lee....(Copied) from a book. 

 Bobi with Gene Pitney:

Shifts as much as 4" above the knee (wow)formed the basis of the Casual Shops range, trouser suits, jacket and skirts, short stark disco dresses, Bermuda shorts, beach wear but also it was the tailoring....  The rest is history.....  

 
Jan.s: Who are your favourite NZ designers now?  

Bobi: If I am buying these day its certainly Trelise Cooper, I am more her Cooper range, but I like a longer look. Cant do minis these days or Maxi's.  Also Zambesi, and World Two wonderful Houses of Fashion, and I appreciate Karen Walker's look and workmanship - Overseas I always go to Zara, and H & M, they are my style...I love what Muicca Prada does...I so enjoy a fashion mag from time to time,just to keep up with the play,   but I still have my kinda style.... bright and breezy like me....

Jan.s:  Thanks Bob the Mod....you will always be that gal with 'the London look' to me....! 

  Bobi, Billy Kristian, Dinah Lee at the Vodaphone NZ Music Awards...

All photos Courtesy of and copyright of Bobi Petch unless otherwise credited.

http://www.dinahlee.com.au/ 

http://www.genepitney.org/

White Tara

This beautiful painting of White Tara is by my cousin, artist Oona Carter.

 Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā (Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh.

I have taken the liberty of  including excerpts about White Tara from the Wikipedia link as below:

'Tara is a tantric meditation deity whose practice is used by practitioners of the Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism to develop certain inner qualities and understand outer, inner and secret teachings about compassion and emptiness. Tara is actually the generic name for a set of Buddhas or bodhisattvas of similar aspect. These may more properly be understood as different aspects of the same quality, as bodhisattvas are often considered metaphoric for Buddhist virtues.

White Tārā, also known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity; also known as The Wish-fulfilling Wheel, or Cintachakra

As one of the three deities of long life, White Tara/Sarasvati is associated with longevity. White Tara counteracts illness and thereby helps to bring about a long life. She embodies the motivation that is compassion and is said to be as white and radiant as the moon.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_%28Buddhism%29

White Tara courtesy of & copyright of Oona Carter 201.  

https://twitter.com/#!/OracleOOna
 
 A beautiful video and new  take on White Tara Mantra.  I like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK2tHqqb28Y

ARTERIAL FLOW: INTERVIEW TONIGHT! 2ND FEB.

For pals near & far...TUNE IN TONIGHT if you'd like to hear more about my collaborations with & for 'ARTERIAL FLOW'!

'Not to be forgetting - an on air chat this very evening with Janice Slater talking about her work with Arterial Flow and no doubt much more. 9pm Adelaide time / 9.30pm NSW. 93.7FM locally / www.threedradio.com elsewhere. :)

An Interview with Mose McCormack

Jan.s:  Mose...As I understand it, you're resident with your family in Santa Fe...but where did your musical journey begin?

Mose:  Born in south Alabama on Dec. 31, 1949. My first musical memories were, my mother singing to me, and being dragged to the southern Baptist Church, where the white folks were were trying to sing "black" and they didn't even realize it. I didn't realize it either , at such an "innocent" age. 


Jan.s:  When did you begin playing?


Mose:  It wasn't till my first band ,at age 15, did I acknowledge The Blue Eyed Soul Brother in me. All those folk songs my Mama used to sing me to sleep with, all had black roots. The "real" gospel singers were in the black churches. And here I was singing, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Percy Sledge, and don't forget James Brown.

Jan.s:  What was the name of that band...what was the lineup...where were you gigging?

Mose:  One band was named "Sound of Six", another was"Brand X". My Brother Randy, played guitar. Mike Sisson on drums, Bill Moore-Bass, Bubba Carl Phillips- guitar, And the late Jimmy Edwards on keyboard. We played at local high schools and drunken, college fraternity parties. This was 1965-66. We were a real "Garage Band". We drifted from R&B to playing the "hip" west coast sound. Slightly psychedelic. 

The reality of the uptight south made me flee at the age of 17. To much fear and loathing of different races, creeds, religions. All I could do was play guitar and I needed to do something with my life ,so I became a songwriter,lived in San Fransisco, played there and Northern California in small listening clubs and coffee houses.


Jan.s:  Tell us about your jewellery making ...the stones you use...and the designs?

Mose:  OOOKAY, San Francisco was great for music. Music everywhere. But moving on was in the plan and I found myself living in a ghost town in  Arizona, on probation for bank robbery.(search Mose McCormack hard enough and you'll find the dirty truth) My probation officer said he didn't like me playing guitar in bars and such. Had to get a real job. So I asked a friend to show me a couple of things on making jewelry. I'd hang out with the Hopi and Navajo jewelers, learning traditional styles and methods. 

I fell in love with Turquoise. I grind/shape all my settings.

Onward... I heard all about Santa Fe and how it was the third largest art market in the world. Great place to be a starving artist. When I was released from my probation, I moved to New Mexico.

http://www.newmexicosound.com/

 http://www.skystonetrading.com/-c-20/mose-mccormack-royston-turquoise-tab-necklace

If you want to read a full interview with Mose...check the following link out!

http://www.nucountry.com.au/articles/diary/july2009/130709_mosemccormack.htm

All photos courtesy of & copyright of Mose McCormack unless otherwise stated:

Photo of guitar and bird. 'That's one of my many chickens. It's a bantam Mille Flur. A breed from Belgium.' Photo: Courtesy of & copyright of Jack Clift.

The Northern Beaches and the Nagas!

I've just returned from a stay on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, (NSW) ...

This vast coastline & its inlets have always been a haven for surfers, musicians and visual artists  ..

At present it seems to be overflowing with them...with brilliant photographers, fashion creatives and home designers opening stores which often combine cafes & flower stalls in glorious waterfront restaurants...

With the Year of the Dragon now underway ...here's to celebrating the world of the creatives who ride the waves of change!  Those who dive into the realms of water where the aspect of Benten and the great Naga, serpentine energies lay ready to be awakened...

Here's to seeking & finding then riding those powerful energies of change ...to witness the Dragon and to respect it's powerful nature rather than fight or try to tame it...

Below is a most gorgeous image of Benten...link at end of post::

 'WHO IS BENZAITEN. Female. A river goddess in Indian mythology. Her Sanskrit name "Sarasvatī" means "flowing water" and thus she represents everything that flows (e.g., music, words, speech, eloquence). Later adopted into the Buddhist and then Shinto pantheons of Japan. One of Japan's Seven Lucky Gods. Comes in two main forms: (1) with two arms holding a lute; (2) with eight arms holding martial implements to indicate her role as protector against disaster; this version is called Happi Benzaiten. In less-common forms she is depicted naked or as Uga Benzaiten (esoteric form). Her messenger is the snake, so she is sometimes shown mounted on a serpent or dragon. Goddess of Learning, Eloquence, Music, Poetry, Speech, Rhetoric, Wealth, Longevity; Protects against natural disaster; Inventor of Sanskrit; River Goddess'.

Taken from the following link:

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/benzaiten.shtml

The fabulous image of Benten was found on the following site but it does not say who it is attributed to:

 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wnz0tiwfMVA/SydBFYPwc9I/AAAAAAAAAp0/NEEIwPfmxEw/s320/Benten+sea+goddess.jpg
 

http://www.japancollection.com/japanese-prints-uview/Keisei-Goddess-Benten-on-the-Mystical-Dragon.php?y=1&subid=50&pid=7113&pg=1&ppp=100

An Interview with Johh Currie

 Jan.s:  John, would you tell us about your recent climb on Mt Cho Oyu?

John: Cho Oyo is the sixth highest mountain in the world, and is approached from the Tibet side. Base Camp is near a mountain pass called the Nangpa La, which has been used as a trading route between Nepal and Tibet for centuries by the local people. The climb is not technical but the standard route is long and cold, and once you get above 7000 meters you realize what a huge mountain Cho Oyo really is. 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately I was not travelling strong enough this trip to go beyond camp 2 at 7100 meters, but some members of my team pushed up to around 7700 meters. We always have a puja at base camp and bless each other and our equipment before climbing the mountain, our Nepalese Sherpa’s will not set foot on the mountain without this taking place. No one on my expedition summited this year, despite the best puja ever. Snow conditions were bad this climbing season, in that there was a lot of it, which made sections of the mountain avalanche prone and therefore very dangerous. 

 

 

 

 

Jan.s:  On the plains in Tibet you visited some villages....can you share some of your experience...

To cross the Nepal\Tibet border at Kodari, you must walk across the friendship bridge to the town of Zangmu and there pass through “Chinese” immigration control . Zangmu is a typically ugly border town, lots of concrete, there is an air of oppression which is tangible. After leaving Zangmu you climb relatively quickly to the vast brown Tibetan plateau. Initially there are more concrete towns, Nylam , (pronounced Neel am),  but eventually there are small Tibetan settlements which can be seen in the distance and the last town before leaving the main road for the track to Cho Oyo is Tingri. 

 

 

 

 

Tingri has a wild west feel about it, the local Tibetan people are shy compared to Nepal and often don’t like to have their picture taken. Maybe if I was approached by some rough looking, hairy, western mountaineers – I wouldn’t let them take my picture either. There are few amenities in Tingri and local life is hard, but like all of Tibet it is changing. 

 

 

 

 

 The Chinese are making massive investments in roads and bridges, I suppose there are both good and bad aspects of this development. Some local Tibetans followed us to base camp, in the hope of selling their wares. Local people are very colourful, with bright red cloth in their hair, and ornaments of yak bone. The women ware large silver belts, both sexes ware their hair long and usually braided in some fashion.  There is a wildness about them. If you could bottle it I would drink some. 

 

 

 Tashi Delek John! 

 

All photos courtesy of & (c) copyright of John Currie 2011.

Part Two: An Interview with Narelle Carter-Quinlan

Jan.s:  I invited Narelle to talk about perception and in her inimitable style here is what she wrote.....

Narelle:  Lenses of Perception

My yoga teacher of many years, Alan Goode, used to say, "Yoga cleanses the lenses of perception". And indeed I experience it does; at least on the mat. My relationship with myself, my perception of what is possible, or how I might commune within or "do" an asana, continues to open out over these years of practice. My practice is an act of creation. I move myself toward asana, I enter it, I interact with it and with myself through it, and, as long as I am available to myself and to my direct experience, I Experience myself. Information comes in. If I don't filter this experience, or defend against it, it impacts me. There is space. Change happens. My active engagement with this, is an act of creation. Much of this, of course, I have also learnt from my Spiritual practice of meditation and of Transformation.

For me, "available" is the operative word here. My "perception" may be quite a different activity from my "being available". Available to myself, to my actual experienced experience. And if I am relating with another, available to the direct experience of myself in relationship with my Other, and with the All that Is; that is, myself, the Other in question, and the vibrating communion of What Is that surrounds, and permeates us in that moment. Available to What Is, in all its vibrating aliveness in the moment, becomes my action. 

Hmmmm. Much  like the experience of tasting what something is not, in order to know more of what it is, I have been experiencing (and perceiving!) much of  "Perception" in its guise of an act of separation in my life of late; not with availability to anything at all. I notice that in this space, some things close down; most notable to me at this time, communication and compassion.

Recently, two major life experiences illuminated and continue to illuminate this for me. Piercingly so.

Last September, ten weeks ago, my mother died. It was not unexpected; she had been very ill for a long time. Nor, sadly, had we been very close.  And yet we were, I discover now. In many ways we had much in common; two women, both mothers, who deeply, deeply love/d their children, even as adults. 

I am my mother's only offspring, her only child. In her passing, there is my father. And his grief, the grief of saying farewell to one's partner of 57 years of marriage. 

I was fearful to meet him that first day after Mum died. Would he be enraged with me? Would he be alive when I arrived at his house? 

My lenses of fear. Possibly guilt. Yet he welcomed me, with unrestrained openness of arms and heart. And we wept. And as we talked, as my Dad showed me her things, as I felt my mother's presence over the next days and weeks, as I type this now, I realise/d that I had not really been available or seen my mother. I found her difficult. Demanding in ways I could not meet. But her quiet dignity, the gifts of the person, I did not see. Defence clouded and limited my lenses. 

As I travelled overseas just nine days after her passing, my father discovered he needed surgery. Home I needed to come.   

My own experience was one of being in New York City (a city I love dearly), anchor less. My family in tatters. My grief rose and washed through. 

My friends away, or going away, or busy in the breathlessness that is this city. The small furry animal inside me needed as much to come hometo be in my own bed, in my own room, with my own cat, as much as my father, alone and frightened and grieving, needed his only well relative (he has an ill brother) to support him. His daughter. So home I came. Cancelling teaching commitments. Which felt awful and anxiety provoking. 

What struck me, was this lens thing. Right there and then. As I lay on my bed in Manhattan, it was clear. As I heard responses from those around me of my decision, I became aware that each individual was viewing this reality (my mother's death, my fathers' surgery, my going home), through their own lenses. The response was mixed and polarised. It was curious to behold. The lenses of perception. Not necessarily matching my felt, direct experience of myself. What surgery did my father need? Cataracts. In both eyes. Neglected apparently, for years, as he nursed my mother, putting her care above his own. His lenses. One done, the other to go....Doesnt need his specs anymore!!

What do I Experience when I step myself beside myself, aside from my perception. Ahh, now that opens it up.....I experience Love. Great Love.

...When I was  little girl, and I had been "naughty", or believed myself to have done something "wrong", I would apologise to my father, and ask forgiveness. He would look at me amused. Compassion and expansiveness filling his face and eyes. "Do you forgive me Dad", I'd ask, little, maybe 3-5 years old. "There's nothing to forgive", he'd say. It was a direct experience for me of standing in the Light. His eyes clear and blue. Lens-less.Creation. Thanks Dad!

Several years ago, I reminded him of this incident, this experience. He smiles again, "Oh. Good. I'm glad you got that one." His eyes catch mine and twinkle. I can see right through them.

 http://sites.google.com/site/narelleyogascoliosis/home

http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com/teachers/NarelleCarterQuinlan.html

All Photos: Narelle Carter-Quinlan: (c) Courtesy of and copyright 2011