http://weblog.larkvi.com Sean's Ramblings and Photos on the Internet Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:27:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A priest's cat sits on some news-sheets, patiently waiting for her master's interview to be completed. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/07/29/priests-cat-mekele-tigray-ethiopia-2009/ Abraham at the moment of sacrificing Isaac, as part of the 2010 Chester Plays at Victoria College, the University of Toronto, under the direction of the PLS. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/07/12/abraham-and-isaac-2010-pls-chester-play-cycle-toronto/ God studies his lines while the wagon stage is set up,and unfurls the rainbow signaling his promise to Noah to never flood the earth again, at the end of the play of Noah's Ark and The Flood, one of the plays of the Chester Cycle, performed in their entirety at Victoria ... http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/06/25/god-the-flood-2010-pls-chester-play-cycle-toronto/ I wanted to experiment a bit with a punchier, more-saturated look, and this is what came out of a shoot with Pop the cat. Strobist info: 1 SB-28 in a shoot through umbrella camera right to fill open shade. I wanted to experiment a bit with a punchier, more-saturated look, and this ... http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/06/23/and-now-for-something-a-little-different/ A horse grazes on a rainy day, just outside the tamari betoch (student huts) of the famous church of Debre Berhan Selassie, in Gonder. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/06/22/horse-gonder-ethiopia-2009/ A teacher of arabic writing at the mosque in Bahir Dar. Moslems are a significant minority in areas of the North, and comprise a majority in the Eastern areas of Ethiopia. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/06/15/arabic-writing-teacher-bahir-dar-ethiopia-2009/ This gentleman, whose name I have sadly forgotten, was a farmer and a deacon (I believe) at the local church. When I was in the Andabet area for research, he showed my translator and me to the various farms of the priests who made parchment and scribed books. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/06/15/deacon-andabet-amhara-ethiopia-2009/ Zewchoas is one of the chief instructors at the St. Yared Theological Academy in Axum, and has a reputation as a däbtära, a magician (he is also properly a däbtära in its original sense of liturgical specialist). A dwarf, he was picked upon, and learned magic in order to gain ... http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/05/27/anata-zewchoas-axum-ethiopia-2009/ A wooden tablet inscribed with a magical formula, when kept in a household, it is supposed to bring wealth into the household. http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/05/26/magical-tablet-tigray-ethiopia-2009/ An image of a demon stares out from the first panel of a magical (prayer) scroll. The image of the demon has inherent magical significance, but it also is meant to show attacking demons their own visage, and thus to scare them. A useful introduction is Jacques Mercier's 'Ethiopian Magic ... http://weblog.larkvi.com/2010/05/25/talismanic-image-demon-magic-scroll-tigray-ethiopia-2009/