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Zora von Pavonine
1k Plays1 year ago
Surrounded by animals, held most dear was the peacock family that allowed her to follow them around, telling stories, inventing all kinds of life.
Zora von Pavonine spent her teenage chapter foreshadowing her eventual participation in burlesque with another solo activity crafted beautifully from the mind and body, performing as a decorated cross country and track athlete, breaking records and holding others to this day. Her deep appreciation for this output, mental tenacity, just the self and the body, stuck with her long after she left the track and immersed herself fully in hip hop dance. She found grounding and heaven in hip hop and had been teaching the format for years when she found burlesque and she knew: she knew she had mined the gem, a dynamite composition of effort, passion, expression and self.
A published poet, holder of a handful of intellectual property patents and a few degrees in the creative arts, Zora needles on towards creating smart, impassioned acts wrapped in costumes that speak to her tremendous love of fashion and design, reflective of her hip hop roots and the unmistakable dedication of a distance runner… It has been said that her sparkle can be seen from outer space; it has been rumored that one night in Zora’s audience will have you discovering confetti in all your places for a month on… with pasties so small, even the most veteran of show-goers blush, they come to see the tease and leave with an eyeful of feathers… she is the Girl With The Peacock Tattoo.
Zora was initially featured on SRTN Episode 10
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Transcript
Introduction and Light-hearted Conversation
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Volante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
00:00:15
Speaker
And everybody, this is Ken Vellante with something rather than nothing. And goodness, Zora, Van Pavanen and I are already talking about cats. And the cat has appeared. We will have some video of this. We wanted to go in with a hot start here.
Reflecting on the Past and Life Purpose
00:00:32
Speaker
Zora, welcome back to the program.
00:00:34
Speaker
Thank you. God, it's so great to be here. I'm reflecting on the last time we met, which I think was in like my favorite part of the Rose Garden. I think we were like in a little Shakespeare nook and we were chatting and it was just like so warm and sunny. And I think it was also COVID times. So were we sitting like six feet apart from each other? I don't remember.
00:01:01
Speaker
We were. It was in a strange time and or like a bubble, you know, being outside. But yeah, still like, well, you had a kick ass jacket that you had made. And so my inkling, my inkling was the touch. But I don't think that's how it worked back then. I think it was like, hey, good jacket like the Fonz. I mean, unbelievable. Like, you know, yeah.
00:01:35
Speaker
And she gets her little toe beans going. But yeah, I love that jacket. It starts conversations everywhere I go. And I had this really interesting experience a few years back where I got sort of put through a series of questions to discover my life purpose. And it was really awesome because I think that
00:01:53
Speaker
I love that jacket so muc
00:02:01
Speaker
you know, when we think about what a life purpose is, we maybe like have some really existential and like grandiose ideas about what that can mean. And I discovered just really because the words came flying out of my mouth, and then I was like, that awesome
00:02:22
Speaker
like tingle of divine sensation that comes over you when you say something that you just like know is the truth. And you kind of feel your whole system go, right? And I said out loud, my life purpose is to sparkle. And it was like,
00:02:41
Speaker
It was like anybody who knows me would be like, yeah, obviously. But in that moment, I was like, oh God, it's like not to like do all of these other things that are maybe gonna require me to like toil or have dedication beyond desire, right? Like to just like be like a workhorse for doing some vision or some artistic output that eventually, right?
00:03:11
Speaker
requires more dedication than desire, which is probably anything we engage with at some point, right? It can always be for fun. But when I said that, I was like, oh my God, everything is just like so simple now because my life purpose is to sparkle and that's so fucking easy. And I do that every day. And I feel like I also bring a lot of sparkle to other people's lives through like my various adventures and
00:03:37
Speaker
And I was like, wow, it just was the most awesome settling. And so I love that you bring up the jacket, because the jacket sparkles, right? And so literally, and physically, and metaphorically, we're just, I'm here to sparkle. And I just, I love that. And so I love that the jacket made such an impression on you.
00:03:59
Speaker
I think it's wild because in this expansive show, I think you went to the edge of the universe and back. And listeners, just so you remember, Zora was on episode 10, special 10, way back when. We got to do the double digit. It was absolutely fantastic. And everybody's scientifically proven.
00:04:24
Speaker
uh that Zora's sparkle can be seen from outer space in the far reaches so uh not not just a rumor but um i was uh yeah so we we did the um we did the video um which was a feature of of your work your design uh cosmically speaking at a dramatic point and we had talked about this
Exploring New Photography Ventures
00:04:48
Speaker
the
00:04:48
Speaker
a breeze of the perfect miles per hour, blue through your hair, capturing the shot, a fun little thing like that. And so, trying to make your magic. Now, I wanted to drop in and talk about some of the photos you've been doing.
00:05:06
Speaker
um and uh because like I have a list I think I wrote a list of like 250 things and we're just gonna like bop a few here but like tell me about the the spirit uh the the photography you've been doing like blast me with that oh my gosh um thank you so much for asking I am so excited to talk about this so um I uh
00:05:30
Speaker
I have been in love with aura photography for a very long time. I had my first aura photo taken by a really awesome individual who I've had the pleasure of being shot by a couple of times over the years. Her business is Radiant Human. She used to be here in Portland. She's now in New York and continues to do big and beautiful and amazing things.
00:05:58
Speaker
um as someone who you know with burlesque it's it's really about honoring those who came before you and um her name is christina lonsdale and um i i you know in in this in this universe here together you and me like i'd really love to give a shout out to her because um i when i first learned about aura photography i was just like
00:06:23
Speaker
what is this amazing magic? And then I went and had my photo taken and it was such this like beautiful little keepsake piece of art thing that I was holding in my hand. And my girlfriend and I went to BC for her birthday in April of this year. And it's just something that I do. I'm always like every city, big city, right? That I go and visit. I'm always Googling or a photography. Is there an aura photographer in this city?
00:06:53
Speaker
So I found an Aura photographer up in Vancouver and Lindsay had never had one done and really didn't know anything about it. And we went and it was amazing. And I was there with this incredible woman. Her business is Hello Aura. And I just said to her, I'm like, girl,
00:07:11
Speaker
You got to get to Portland. I was like, you know radiant human and she you know, it's a very small community I know this now, but I was like radiant human, you know has left a huge Vacancy in the market and people are people love this and they're interested in it and it's very fascinating for folks who are into it and you should come to Portland and we kind of had like a brief chat about it and and
00:07:34
Speaker
Essentially, the punchline was that because of the challenges that folks have crossing the border and doing work, she doesn't ever come here. I got in the car with Lindsay and I was like, why am I not doing this? Why am I not doing this?
00:07:52
Speaker
the audacity of the question and like the audacity of my unknowing in that moment. I was like, yeah, why the fuck am I not doing this? So I immediately, when we were in the car, I was like, okay, I'm doing this.
00:08:07
Speaker
And our five hour car ride home is now about finding a business name. Like we are going to hatch the business name on this drive home from Vancouver. And we went through like a myriad of options and I kind of did like some small like testing of the business name. And Ken, I will tell you this whole thing has come about like an absolute miracle.
00:08:28
Speaker
Like if any of the listeners have ever had an experience where you decide you want to do something and the universe is like here you go it was just like one open door one green light after another I experienced no challenges I experienced no resistance.
00:08:46
Speaker
And I learned a tremendous amount. As far as I was able to find and understand, there is one company in the entire world that actually makes the Aura cameras. And it is the folks who are carrying on the legacy of Guy Coggins, who was the original maker of the very first camera. And they are down in Southern California.
00:09:10
Speaker
And I reached out to them. We had some dialogue. And it was, I will say, because I feel like it's just been an important part of my journey with this whole experience as I launch, that
00:09:31
Speaker
when I decided to do this, my excitement and my sureness over it, there was nothing that was going to stop me. And I'm now like here with the camera and have a website launched and have like, it started a business, which I know nothing about, right? Like, I mean, I have been mostly an employee my whole life. So when it comes to like, you know,
00:09:55
Speaker
kick-starting all of these little things that you have to do and knowing all the things. So it's been just a really explosive time of learning and growth and getting all those little buttons pushed. And now I'm here with this camera and this great love for Aura Photos and the opportunity to bring this really amazing metaphysical, kind of like ghosty magic
The Magic of Aura Photography
00:10:24
Speaker
into the hands of folks who want to participate. And it's excellent. It's excellent. And I have an event tomorrow, actually, which I don't know when, but November 5th, I have an event with Raven's Wing, which I'm so excited is this beautiful queer witchy shop in Selwood that I feel so lucky that they were interested in this and were having a collaborative event. And yeah, it just,
00:10:53
Speaker
Here it is. And here we are in Aura photography. If you don't know what it is, I'll dive into that real quick. Yeah, please. Yeah. Maybe part before the horse, right? Definition before all the other stuff. I do what you do and then realize, well, we're dropping down into the Aura photography. But let's do a little time capsule. Yeah.
00:11:19
Speaker
what I love so immensely about analog Aura photography. So in my research, I discovered that there is like digital technology that will do a scan of you and produce like on a computer screen, right? But that is not what we're talking about. So with Aura photography, the
00:11:46
Speaker
The silver sensors that you place your hands on are connected to the camera and that sort of magical display of the metaphysical, your aura, the conductivity of the sterling that are literally on these sensor plates and then electrically connected to the camera produce these really wild images.
00:12:09
Speaker
And aura, every living being, plants, animals, everyone has an electromagnetic field around them that sort of produces and can vary at different wavelengths and create different colors. There are folks out there in the world who can see the colors that people have around them with their naked eye. And I have done a ton of reading about that as well. I am not one of those people.
00:12:37
Speaker
And I think that it is, you know, I think that they've sort of determined that, you know, the seat of all of that is going to be like up here with our pineal gland. If I'm saying that right, I think it's pineal. I feel like I've heard a couple people say that's how I have it in my head. So it's good enough.
00:12:52
Speaker
But I'm like, Peniel doesn't work for me, Peniel does. So the aura, right? We're already sort of crossing into like the Wu science, right? We'll hyphenate it. We're crossing into Wu science because there is, you know,
00:13:08
Speaker
We scientifically understand that there are wavelengths that move through the air that happen at colors that the human eye can't see. And so not too much of a leap to understand and be enthusiastically bought into the fact that humans carry that same thing.
00:13:26
Speaker
The Aura camera is just a fucking delight, you guys. If you've never seen an Aura camera, it literally looks like something from like World's Fair. It has a very kind of steam punk essence to it, I would say. So the camera box itself is really large. I think it's like, you know, eight or nine inches wide by like 10 or 11 inches tall by
00:13:55
Speaker
about that deep like so it's this big massive box that the cameras the actual camera sits inside and then there are these sensor plates so they are I wish I would have planned ahead I could have grabbed one or if we take a break out I'll grab one but the sensor plates are these very basic
00:14:17
Speaker
It's like the shape of an average book, right? It's kind of like this big and about that deep. And there are literal sterling silver small little plates that look like they kind of line up like with the digits of your hand. So there's like a plate here and then a plate here and then a plate here. And you literally place your hands on these sensors. And then the camera does this really amazing long exposure where
00:14:47
Speaker
the first couple of seconds it's actually capturing you and then the other sort of like five to eight seconds it's capturing the colors and then the camera beeps at me to let me know that it's done its job and then I release the shutter and out
00:15:05
Speaker
out pops this gorgeous, you know, instant photo that we get to watch develop real time. And all of the colors start to show up. I mean, it is, it is a fucking trip. And I it's so funny, even after like, building a website and having to write all this copy and having to, you know, help
00:15:27
Speaker
Not only literally define what an aura photo is so that folks who have never experienced it before can understand like what it is that they're Yeah, you'd want to do that, right? You'd want to do it the right way. Yeah. Yeah There's right the secondary job of like
00:15:44
Speaker
you know, helping people who don't know what it is or who don't know or who will be eventual clients of Aura photography by me or by somebody else, help them sort of illuminate for them the magic that those of us who are behind the camera feel about what it is to take an Aura photo and what it is to like produce an Aura photo for someone. It just
00:16:09
Speaker
It is I just I think it is the fucking coolest thing ever. And I love it because I'm learning. I'm also, you know, this is new for me. So I'm in the process of like learning about the colors and and just like doing as much understanding as I can, because the colors are associated with the chakras. And so where your color falls in your field means just as much as the color itself. So there is an anatomy to the aura. So when you're looking at an aura photo,
00:16:39
Speaker
Actually, hold on one second. Yeah, most definitely. Okay, so this is not a photo that I took, but it's a photo that I have out. This is a photo, let's see if I can, oh, the reflections are really bad, but this is a photo of me and Lindsey, and this was taken up in Vancouver. Yeah. Lila's here trying to rub her face on it.
00:17:04
Speaker
This is just, this is too precious. This is just too cute. Okay, okay. So here's, here's the photo, right? And you can see like the reflections are really hard, but you can see that there's some kind of orbs of light here. Yeah, most definitely. And there's all of this stuff happening here in the middle and then in the outer. And it's hard to tell because Lindsay is wearing a black shirt, but if you,
00:17:31
Speaker
There's a whole lot of purple and indigo happening over here. And there's some red and orange happening. They're just wild. They're totally wild. And I will take 20 pictures in a row, and none of them will look the same. But then, every now and then, I will have folks that maybe do something similar. So this was interesting. I had an event.
00:18:00
Speaker
And I ended up having like a really, like one of my best friends was there and she invited one of her instructors. They both do massage therapy and their healer auras were remarkably similar. Like the whole night it was like so much intensity and diversity in the colors and in how the photos looked. And she and her instructor like both in massage healing arts, right?
00:18:28
Speaker
they both had strikingly similar colors and color placement. And it was unbelievable. It was so cool to watch. And here's another fun example. I took a photo of my mom, and I took a photo of my stepdad. And they had totally different colors, not the same at all. And I took a photo of them together, and more of his colors pulled.
00:18:54
Speaker
in their photo than my mom's and then I took a photo with my mom and the dog Beatrice and I took a photo of my stepdad and Beatrice and the two photos with Beatrice were almost identical. So
00:19:13
Speaker
I was like, can I pull an aura off of a dog? I'm jumping around a little bit. No, no, I'm with you. One of the things that I would really, really like to do with this is, and I don't have this fully fleshed
Interpreting Aura Colors and Practices
00:19:30
Speaker
out yet. I know that it's going to be part of this adventure somehow, but I would really like to engage
00:19:38
Speaker
with at least one event or charity every year and just go with the camera and like bring joy and bring sparkle. And I love the Oregon Humane Society. I donate to them regularly. Like when it was time to like change out my car, like God bless all those ads on NPR that was like, donate your car. It's like my car fucking died. And I was like, five minutes later, I was like, I'm calling the Oregon Humane Society.
00:20:08
Speaker
So I would really really love to do an event with the Oregon Humane Society They don't know this yet at Oregon Humane Society if anyone's listening I would really love to go do an event with them like either on like a big adoption day push or on like, you know and take photos of people with their new companions and and and and if I can pull right if I can pull their or as if I can get enough of their paw on the sensor and
00:20:37
Speaker
What the photos with Beatrice proved to me was that I can get a reading. I can get a reading off of an animal. And what was even fucking crazier was that the photos of my mom and Beatrice and Floyd and Beatrice were literally almost identical. And the colors that were in that field were nowhere in the color field when it was just my mom or just Floyd.
00:20:59
Speaker
So it's like both of those photos pulled Beatrice 100%. And what's even crazier is like when we talk about the colors and their meaning.
00:21:12
Speaker
You know, red, root chakra, right? Like we are grounded. That is the color that is close to the earth. People who pull red tend to be like very physical beings, right? Like they, you know, they'll do a lot physically. They're folks who really like analytical stuff. They like structure. They like organization. They kind of like things to have sort of like a set rhythm. Like people who pull red tend to be,
00:21:39
Speaker
like more on the ambitious side, maybe a little more on the type A side. And so this is where we start. And I would love to go through all the colors, but we're not going to do that today. Maybe that's a different episode. But by the time you get to the top, you get to your third eye and you get to your crown, we're up in like indigo and purple and like these deeper, deeper core colors.
00:22:03
Speaker
The photo of my mom with Beatrice and Floyd with Beatrice were exclusively purple. It was like purple with lavender with like purple going into indigo and purple and indigo while they are next to each other they do carry some different properties but as a punchline it is
00:22:23
Speaker
highly spiritual, meditative, vibrates very closely with nature. Like you, one article that I read said that at some point there was a photo taken of, I think of a monk. It was somebody who does a very high and dedicated spiritual practice and they were like purple and white. Cause white is like at the very top, like white is sort of like this angelic color. I've read a bunch about white and I've heard that it's very, very rare.
00:22:53
Speaker
And so I was like, of course, of course the sentient dog being is going to pull purple and be like vibrates closely with nature like right like third eye. And it was just like it was just really, really fun. And I think I think I have a really deep appreciation for the inexact nature of the science as as sort of
00:23:17
Speaker
I like maybe frustrating as that may be for some folks who like really want something kind of specific or the interpretive the interpretive element to it.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that that's really what the beauty is, is that there is maybe like a set of like a premises or like a set, like an essence, right? Of like what goes along with that color. And again, like I'm doing my best to like read and learn, but there's such a range. Like if the color is exactly that color, like right here in this channel, then it's this. But if it's a little bit faded and kind of got more white in it, then it could be more like
00:23:53
Speaker
And if it's like murky or muddy or kind of is like not exactly clear or gets a little darker, then it tends to mean the opposite of whatever that color is, right? Like if yellow, for example, is like this very like happy, fun, vibrant, outgoing, you know, like kind of a bubbly color, if there's like a muddy yellow, that can mean like jealousy or frustration or like, right? So within the color, there's also like
00:24:22
Speaker
up here and down here and so there's the colors there just so much to go into but to circle back around to the original question and an instant photo is happening by the process of you placing your hands on these sensor plates that energy being literally conducted to the camera with an electrical cord and then the camera
00:24:48
Speaker
produces. The camera uses the Fuji Instax film, but in sort of a vernacular, like it's a Polaroid, right? It comes out, it's blank, and then we watch it happen real time. And it's just a fucking marble. It is just the goddamn coolest thing. It's just sensory.
00:25:08
Speaker
It's just such a sensory delight. I tell you one of the things I was thinking because I was listening to your description and the colors and I was definitely thinking my brain translated it and thinking about like painting and interactivity between colors and space on a canvas. So when you're talking about like this
00:25:29
Speaker
I'm gonna I'm gonna lead to a question really quickly when you were talking about like this maybe Melding or an amplification of callers particularly with maybe more than one being is there any aspect where with your like sensitivity you feel like Like there's a voyeuristic like you see like a lot that You know like a lot all at once or is it not work like that. I
00:25:58
Speaker
Um, this is a great question. Um, I think as someone in this adventure and also in my burlesque adventure, um, that finding, um, finding that
00:26:14
Speaker
Consistent dependable and kind of like quick path of keeping grounded within myself So that the energies that I'm encountering and that the energies that I'm observing You know, like I personally believe that like things can latch it's not like I I am definitely of that school of thought that like you really kind of have to do like a cleanse and so I
00:26:43
Speaker
There are no bad colors in the aura. There's only information. And so I feel like my sort of intention when I'm looking at people's photos and I'm reading them is to help them understand approximately what those colors can mean.
00:27:04
Speaker
And they can find a deeper meaning and definition within that information. This is not fortune telling. This is not a tarot reading. This is not a psychic experience. It's like a guide is a guide or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I really think it's my job to distill
00:27:27
Speaker
um distill the information as best as i am able to curate it and they can really experience what that means and how that is impactful or illuminating for them yeah i wanted didn't want to skip over and it's almost like just a practical like living type of thing the point on
00:27:48
Speaker
when you were talking about, and my question probably encapsulated a lot of things, but in the contact with the energies and the transfer, and your work as an entertainer, combined with your sensitivity, and I know we talked a bit about this in the past, combined with your sensitivity towards the coming and going with that,
00:28:13
Speaker
you had mentioned like a way i don't know was like balance or cleanse but like what is it i'm not i'm just saying like what is it what is it that you do as a as a practice i'm sure there are many things but like how do you deal with that because i can recognize that within you i share some of that quality exchanging things where's me where are they
00:28:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's, it's a, it's a, that's a great question. I love this question. And it's, isn't it wild, right? Because you probably have the thing that you do. And, and those practices may not look anything like the other.
00:28:53
Speaker
When I'm performing, I think my ritual is actually a very physical one. When I come home, I unpack my bag. I unpack my bag, I put everything away, everything gets hung back up, everything goes back in whatever case, you know, or it's like storage container. The bag gets put back up on the top shelf, like the luggage shelf in the closet. And that is really how I seal off the energy.
00:29:23
Speaker
And when I'm doing the Aura photos, I would say, and I think probably also because I'm new to it, it is really kind of tough to stay grounded because I am so excited about every photo that I see.
00:29:44
Speaker
I'm just like, look at you, look at your gorgeous colors. Because I love it so much and I'm so enthusiastic about it, I have to continue doing a good job of
00:30:00
Speaker
being the purveyor of enthusiasm, but also being a little bit more reserved so that that person gets to have an experience that is independent of my excitement and my joy for the thing. So that is kind of my first step with aura photography. And then the second thing
00:30:23
Speaker
you know, is I carry obsidian and clear quartz in my pocket. And those two stones do very different things. And so I just like in the moment, it's like, is this a right pocket or is this a left pocket moment? Which one is it?
00:30:38
Speaker
And I'll just reach in and it's just a very tactile, like I will rub the stone, you know, obsidian is dark black and it is really good to like, if you're having a tough day or you're feeling like there's just a lot going on, like you can put obsidian in the shower, you can put obsidian in the bathtub with you, you know, that it's a really, really great stone for helping wick away like negative energy. So if you end up having an encounter, you're like, wow, like I can't quite describe it, but that I'm just feeling a little off kilter.
00:31:08
Speaker
or like if i feel like i'm a little bit too much up here and i need to you know bring myself down a little bit i will rub i will rub the courts just for clarity and cleansing and grounding and um whether um you know
00:31:26
Speaker
Real or placebo. It doesn't really matter I have found I have found a process through the tactile rubbing of these like very differently shaped stones that just Zips it up grounding it and I think what we're talking about is like grounding ritual or more than that it doesn't matter because it's
Events and Collaborations in Photography
00:31:47
Speaker
it's a
00:31:47
Speaker
It's a combination of those type of things. Thanks for dropping into that. And it isn't just because up where we are in the Pacific Northwest, it's turned very rainy, very gray. I mean, it's not just because we're recording here on the weekend, but it gets rainy and gray. And I'm like, well,
00:32:10
Speaker
um the color you know i'm having you on here for the right for the color and oh you got it you got it here we are here we are in all the colors i was just about to talk about your hair and yeah um uh lovely uh lovely uh purple you keep saying uh indigo it keeps coming up in the the as a as a color and what you mentioned i've seen a lot of uh people with like that nice um
00:32:37
Speaker
color. One of the really cool things, and thank you, first of all, Zora, for dropping into catching me up on the spirit of photography, the aura photography, because just for me, I bumped into it in a historical sense. I would look at those type of things historically. I'm from New England. I'd be in old bookstores and see
00:33:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Like, so I got that I got that feel for it, but it was great to see you drop in the way that that you drop in. And I know what you're minding me because, you know, I don't know where you're doing the patents or doing beautiful burlesque dancing or what you do with some of these hours and those hours, you can do a lot of at after.
00:33:32
Speaker
as an athlete, we've talked about that. But it's just really great to see you in that creative mode and learning and dropping into this. And listeners will share a bunch of images and a little bit of things to catch you up
00:33:50
Speaker
catch you up with Zora so hey you got some things to throw out at us or like what you thinking like where you appear in the in the universe where the photo where this photo opportunity like all that type of stuff because the world's moving quickly now we haven't talked in a while so like tell us the things
00:34:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So like I said, I have this really beautiful event happening tomorrow with Raven's Wing. I'm so excited about that. I've got a couple of things brewing for the new year. I'm really excited I might be part of this really lovely event that kind of falls around Valentine's, which kind of parlays into, doesn't answer the question in a slight tangent, but
00:34:36
Speaker
you know, for anyone who's watching the photo that I showed earlier is a photo of me and my girlfriend. And so and I've already sort of referenced it before, like, you know, or photography can accommodate sort of technically up to two, say beings. And so the idea of like having like kind of like a Valentine's
00:34:57
Speaker
Adjacent event would be really lovely because I love taking duo photos family members friends lovers besties like whatever it is I'm getting two people in the tent at the same time is really a fucking marvel because you get to sort of watch these colors meld
00:35:14
Speaker
So I'm hoping to be doing more events that are like that, where there are folks who will come in and ones and twos and engage in that way. I am still setting up possibly one or two more events this year, including an event that might be happening on New Year's.
00:35:36
Speaker
But it's a show that I'm already performing at, and I don't know. I know that my bandwidth is pretty solid, but to set up the tent, which maybe we can get into that next. So I'll sort of pause here and say what's really, I think, intriguing and comically entertaining is that aura photography actually requires mostly darkness.
00:36:01
Speaker
right like photography it's just like the tents and the lights and the things and it's like get the lighting just right and like don't don't go take a photo on a bright sunny day it's actually better when it's overcast it's always about the lighting and aura photography is still about the lighting but it's just i think it's this really
00:36:19
Speaker
like fascinating and kind of like cheeky aspect of or photography is that it's got to be mostly in the dark. So I have built this gorgeous tent that it was by far like the biggest sewing project I've ever done. Which is saying something. I know that. Did I learn so much? Oh my God. Like, Ken, I swear to God, it was like,
00:36:48
Speaker
It was like the homegrown version of sitting with like the IKEA instructions. Oh no. Where you're like, that doesn't look like the right time to do that step. No. I'm just going to do that later. And then you get to later and you're like, oh. You're describing my kryptonite, like just so you know about me.
00:37:09
Speaker
like everything you're saying about like sequence in detail in detail over a billion hours bless you bless you from the bottom of my heart you are describing
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah. So, so yes. So the tent, the tent is just it's, it's, it's very cool. It's round. It's like shaped kind of like a pill. If you look at it in plan view, it is four feet wide by eight feet long.
00:37:42
Speaker
And it's about seven feet tall to the crown, not to the peak. And I have stitched together this fabric because I had a really exacting vision of like the colors of the tent and how that was going to tie in with some of my branding. And so it's it's funny. I can't seem to stay on the topic of when is your next event? It's like, well, no, no, no, no. But the problem is, too, with our combination, I'm following the tent and what it looks like right now, because now my
00:38:11
Speaker
Thank you for being along for the ride. My brain starts to move towards something wicked this way. I'm moving along with you in whatever universe. Okay, great. I haven't lost you. I haven't lost you. The tent is meant to travel with me and with the camera so that I can basically go anywhere I need to.
00:38:32
Speaker
And it set this tent up in any environment because it's a blackout tent. So I can gain the environment that I need in terms of color, lighting, all that stuff, right? The color being black, you have to be doing these photos on a black backdrop and lighting, you know, I can control the lighting if I'm in, you know, a blackout tent.
00:38:54
Speaker
And so it's sort of an interesting balance of folks that I'm talking to that want to share space, that want to collaborate, that want to have an event, and deciding, can the tent fit? Is there somewhere for the tent to go? And if not, what alternative
00:39:16
Speaker
Spaces might you have where this can still be successful? And so I've got I've got those two setups and right now It's just an interesting sort of hybrid of working with folks on the footprint of the tent which was intentionally designed to be Minimal like when I set up the tent in the tent with me is the camera obviously on a tripod and then the bench where my
00:39:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's excellent. That's really cool. That's it. So it was also to really back up. Part of this whole launching this business was also designing this tent, which is fun because I've got a small background in that. And so designing something that met the call of it's lightweight. I can assemble it completely by myself without help.
00:40:10
Speaker
and it has to be small enough to transport in the back of my car. So it was like, and so I designed this really awesome thing. My friend Adam made it for me and it is spectacular. And so now as I'm engaging with folks who want to have events, who want to collaborate, it is does the tent come with me? Does the tent not come with me? And if it doesn't, like then what sort of opportunities are there to
00:40:36
Speaker
to set up in your space. And Raven's Wing is a great example. So the tent would not fit in their retail environment, right? Why would a massive four by eight by seven piece of furniture just magically drop in? So they have a tarot reading room and that's where I will be. I'm gonna hang a black sheet on the back wall and we're gonna do our best to black out the space. Go on Riff a bit on,
00:41:03
Speaker
things that you have coming up or things that you're working on. Okay, so yeah, coming up, I'm really excited to be a part of the annual soiree that happens at the Alberta Rose Theatre.
Burlesque and Personal Growth
00:41:19
Speaker
A really incredible friend and musician and performer sort of collaboratively puts on this show with Aizani, which a little background
00:41:33
Speaker
Johnny and Isaiah are both locals Portland's burlesque reformers entertainers fire performers Yes amazing amazing amazing yes collectively they are eyes on e and they Co-produce this show with pink lady Lindsay Deanne and they basically put on a smash of a show every New Year's and it is
00:42:02
Speaker
It is such a sense of home and family and camaraderie and it is one of my favorite events all year just because I think the sentiment and maybe the nostalgia of what it is to be together while the year changes over and also, you know,
00:42:30
Speaker
Burlesque is really vibrant and thriving in Portland. And for those of us who have been doing it for a really long time, I think I'm coming up on like year 15 or 16. When we started, there wasn't a whole lot. And so there's some OG performers that tend to
00:42:55
Speaker
tend to pop up every year at this event. So it's really just like being in a room with folks that I've been doing this with for the better part of two decades. And it is whenever I'm hosting or emceeing a show, I usually have like a small statement about like whatever that thing is that you really love with those people that you really identify with, like go find that thing.
00:43:19
Speaker
because it doesn't matter how many years I've been doing burlesque, that feeling is still so potent and still so acutely with me after every show of like, God, I'm so fucking lucky to be able to do this. I'm so lucky to know all of these wonderful sparkly people and we do this thing that we all love and
00:43:40
Speaker
you know burlesque is an entertainment industry like any other and it's self-propelled like the people who are in it have to love it have to want to be there because if burlesque just magically stopped tomorrow it's not like i mean maybe some die-hard fans you know but it's not like the world would come knocking and be like whatever happened to burlesque right so there is this motivation and this um dedication and this really
00:44:09
Speaker
I think pure joy for what burlesque as an output and as a performance is that keeps people coming back. And so to be in a room and on a stage with folks that have been doing it for so long that I formed these really wonderful friendships with, there's nothing quite like that.
00:44:32
Speaker
And so that is what I have coming up next is New Year's. And I do actually I think I now that I'm reflecting mentally on my calendar, I do have one show before then it is with Diva Dragbrunch, which is an incredible production run by Justin Buckles. And I feel very lucky to be part of the Diva Dragbrunch family. I'm going to be performing in Portland at Swan Dive at Diva Dragbrunch. I think the show usually starts around noon.
00:45:01
Speaker
And I can send you all those details on where to find me next. But yeah, that's sort of what I've got coming up through the end of the year. And it's so lovely. It's so lovely. I feel so lucky to be part of it. Well, I wanted to just take a moment to, Zora, just to pause and just mention a couple of things where, I don't know, sometimes it might be just kind of like quickly passed by. And I just wanted to...
00:45:30
Speaker
to really thank you because to be able to talk with you when I have and you worked with me in doing a video that was dedicated to you, which is wonderful. But there's aspects where there's a certain type of freedom
00:45:50
Speaker
in comfort, in expression, where that space really helps me. I just want to give you an example, right? So I'm 51. We can each talk about our experience, but I can tell you when it comes to heteronormative, very strict ways of viewing the world,
00:46:15
Speaker
It's a bizarro thing that I grew up with and lived around a lot of my life. And I feel like a lot of great opening lake.
00:46:23
Speaker
But I'll tell you one thing where I want to say that you're important and just like kind of just understanding things. So I was like 19 or 20. And again, that was environment. I was around. I was in the village. Right. So I was in Greenwich Village running around. I was from Rhode Island. But and I'm like, hey, I'm in the village and I'm a wild guy. Always been. But yes.
00:46:45
Speaker
But I'm also like a early 90s, you know, male, maybe rough edges and stuff. But and so I go there, I never bent it. I'm like, hey, I'm in the village and stuff. And immediately I understood everything. Like at that point, I was like,
00:46:59
Speaker
A lot of this stuff, we're playing as a hoax. This is fun. Oh, I'm attractive to this man who looks like, oh my God, because it's makeup. It just messed with my head. I wasn't freaked out about it or anything. I was just like, this is cool. And I just want to say that seeing films and Glitter Tribe and working with you and just that you're just an outstanding performer. I mean, just lovely in the things that you make.
00:47:29
Speaker
It helps. There's something about Portland with all its sins, all its faults that has this freedom that I don't see anywhere else, which has just helped me to understand the world and people just being who they are. So I want to thank you for your part in doing that.
00:47:51
Speaker
I resonate very much with what you've said because I think that I had, and I think we talked about this maybe in our last interview because it's impossible for me to not talk about this when I examine sort of what Burlesque has been and become for me. A lot of things that we do in our lives, we do them because there's an interest or an intrigue.
00:48:13
Speaker
We kind of go that way and it's this output of our time and our interest flowing to that thing, but when you can hit that right pitch
00:48:29
Speaker
when you can find that really unique and beautiful turn where the thing that you're giving so much to doubles back, and now you're getting so much from it. And that's what I feel about burlesque. When I started doing burlesque, and I'm gonna just risk saying, as I'm starting to do aura photography,
00:48:59
Speaker
I can reflect on how there is a lot of effort and output, time, financial, emotional, right, that goes into making the dream happen and then
00:49:15
Speaker
you arrive to this place where you've got a rhythm, right? There is a certain effort when you're starting. There is a certain effort when things are growing and beginning, and then you can kind of plateau where you can enjoy the operation and the function that you've set up. And so having that feedback of burlesque
00:49:40
Speaker
being this beautiful, rich, dynamic thing that I just get to go be a part of. It's like, yeah, I do burlesque, but it's interesting how, as I'm saying this, I can appreciate that my view of burlesque is that it's this energetic entity that I'm fortunate enough to get to tap into.
00:50:04
Speaker
Because what I get, it's not this like static one direction, like I make the costume, I mix the music, I book the show, I do the performance, it's like, no, it's this, it's this whole other thing. And that's what I can imagine, or a photography is probably going to be eventually because the thing that I really love, and this is a very personal statement, is that
00:50:29
Speaker
Burlesque is the one thing that I choose in my life 100% from like desire and excitement, right? I choose to like do dishes because there's an obligation that I choose to go to my job every day because right like I do like what I do and and I have to make a living but like
00:50:55
Speaker
right? We all work out of duty and obligation. And so to find a channel in your life that you get to do a hundred percent, a hundred percent, I'm choosing this from like desire and from joy and from enthusiasm is fucking wild. Because when you stop to think, it's maybe a little bit like disconcerting,
00:51:21
Speaker
how much of your life you actually do from genuine, enthusiastic choice. I don't think it's very much. There's a whole lot that we have to do to survive and to maintain. And yeah, the spectrum of choice has to be acknowledged. It's like,
00:51:42
Speaker
choosing from obligation and from duty all the way down here to like choosing from joy and enthusiasm. And so to circle back to the thing that is impossible for me to not talk about whenever I talk about for less than that is, when there was a very specific show that I went to and performing that night were many of the people who I see every year at that New Year's show.
00:52:11
Speaker
And I saw those folks performing, and I was like, that's it. That's fucking it. That's it right there. And this thing, because I'd been performing burlesque a little bit at that point. I'd been doing it. I hadn't quite found my rhythm. I just hadn't found my groove. And I went, and I saw that show, and I was like this.
00:52:34
Speaker
This was the nebulous, ill-defined, without edges idea that's been just like sitting on the back of my brain, just like kicking its legs, waiting to create enough of a breeze for me to look its way. And I just was like, and it's the same thing as when I was like, my life purpose is to sparkle. It was like the words flew out of my mouth and then like just this amazing sense just like washed over me. It was like,
00:53:03
Speaker
Oh, and I cried a little bit after I said that out loud because I was like, wow, it feels so good to just speak the truth, which is usually pretty simple. And in that moment, I was like, this is what I want to be doing. And I went and found the producer of that show and they were going to be handing the reins off to somebody else. And so I was like, you then introduce me to whoever is going to be taking over because I'm about to be a part of this.
00:53:34
Speaker
And, you know, and like, that was like, what, like 2009 maybe? It was fucking ancient. It was so long ago. And that is the moment, right? That is the moment that we, I think, get to have in this life if we're attuned and if we're listening and if we're willing.
00:54:00
Speaker
Right? Because it's a lot of work. It's a lot of fucking work. It's a lot of closet space. It's a lot of time. And, you know, there are definitely parts of, like, the arrival
00:54:18
Speaker
the invitation to go and do these really fun, wild things that you could be doing with your life, like in your free time. And that is the thing that it's just like, when you find that thing, when you find that group of people, just fucking run at it with everything you have.
00:54:34
Speaker
because it will eventually feed you. I can't believe the lessons and the growth that I have been so fortunate to come into because of my dedication to burlesque, because of my dedication to the craft and the art.
00:54:54
Speaker
what I really, really love to be doing. And it has taught me so much. It's not just me going and doing this thing. It's like it is a full, complete, robust feedback loop. All hail Queen Zora. Yeah.
00:55:15
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Before I let you go, and the only reason I'll let you go is because you are busy and this iteration of you we've captured on audio, but I want to tell you something because I think it's important.
Connecting Themes: Botany and Burlesque
00:55:38
Speaker
So we met by this combination of
00:55:43
Speaker
botanical burlesque which is an idea when I ran into it I didn't know but I know I love the plants in flora and I know I love burlesque and I saw a photo of you and I said I know I I really like her too and so it drew me it drew me out there
00:56:01
Speaker
But here's a really really cool thing I um, I talk about on the show a little bit one of my favorite podcasts over the last few months Is called rooted rooted pod and it's this deep dive in 10 to 50 minutes uh increments by m grebner gaddis who is a plant geek extraordinaire and um just
00:56:25
Speaker
10 to 15 minutes into history, lore, Shakespeare, movies, what the plant is. I'm going to message you after this because I want that name again. Okay. I will give that all to you. But one of the things that really just clicked into my head is just, it is so cool to see the plants around you.
00:56:44
Speaker
And for me, here's the thing, it comes from me, is my mama raised me around plants, and it gets gray, and it gets, but there's this old wisdom of putting living, growing green things, and thank you for making me feel more alive by both your plants, and of course, your spirit. Yeah, here, you know what? While we're on it, I'm going to pull something onto frame, which is so much fun.
00:57:13
Speaker
I went and bought this massive glass base and I've put an orchid and some ground cover in there. There's a little bit of condensation happening right now, but you can see the orchid leaves. This thing
00:57:30
Speaker
has bloomed twice in the last year. And I will tell you, for any Orchid fans, I am not, I am in no way, right? It just Orchids are like, I love them and they're gorgeous, but we- Me too, I can't keep them going.
00:57:47
Speaker
No, we do not live in the geographical jackpot to grow orchids without like a setup and a lot of dedication. Like it's gotta have a misting system. It's gotta have condensation and humidity. And that is what the cool thing is about that little terrarium that I made is that this orchid is going bonkers because I water it twice a year and then it just has its own little ecosystem going inside there and it has bloomed twice.
00:58:16
Speaker
And I fucking I I actually I made another one. There's another one right behind me. Yeah. This is all too much. It's like right there. You can see there's a bunch of ground cover in there, but there's an orchid baby at the bottom. They're all wild. You are a wild woman with these plants. I mean, they're just beautiful and flourishing. My goodness. Yeah. Having fun, huh? Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:58:41
Speaker
Awesome. I'm going to get you because of what you told me about what's going on back behind you. I'm very happy to release you and for you to jump into the things that I know are going on back behind you and to move to your next thing. I'll send you a couple of messages. Don't worry about anything here. I'll take care of everything. Okay.
00:59:05
Speaker
Awesome. Ken, it's so great to chat with you again. This was so fun. How does 60 minutes like evaporate like that? I feel like you and I need to have like a five hour. I just press, we just press pause. I love it. I love it. That's right. Love you so Zora. Awesome. Ken, thank you for everything. Have a great rest of your weekend. You too. Bye.
00:59:35
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.
01:00:06
Speaker
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Speaker
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