Above: "Le crew hollandais légendaire¹" GVB's double-headed top-to-bottom-whole-train at Haarlem refurbishment and overhaul-depot, yesterday. Sarsential 00: aspect ratio [ watching with a detached gaze ] (click on image for close-ups, large format available upon request)

"During the shooting of a scene the director's eye has to catch even the minutest detail. But this does not mean glaring concentratedly at the set. While the camera's are rolling. I rarely look directly at the actors, but focus my gaze somewhere else. By doing this I sense instantly when something isn't right. Watching something does not mean fixing your gaze on it, but being aware of it in a natural way.I believe this is what the medieval Noh playwright and theorist Zeami meant by "watching with a detached gaze."

Akira Kurosawa: "Advice to young people considering a career in filmmaking", adapted by Audie E. Bock, first published in 1975, cited from 'Something Like an Autobiography' (page 191, 'Some Random Notes on Filmmaking')

"A top-to-bottom whole [ train ] covers the entire side of the [ train ], windows and all. Some writers will only do top-to-bottom whole [ trains ], disdaining anything less complete. Others, particularly during periods when the Transit Authority is vigilant, feel that to cover the windows is a waste of time, since these are the first part of the [ train ]  to be cleaned, and usually with solvent who drips down, streaking the piece below. Window-downs last longer, but the top-to-bottom whole [ train ]  is the graffiti writer's finest achievement. It is here that he displays his virtuosity […]. The initials […] which accompany the writer's names, stand for their crews. [A crews is: ] a unit of dudes who work together to achieve a goal: to get up and to go all city […] Crews are made up of trusted friends, […] a bunch of brothers that are down by street law with each other. […] There is a strong sense of community within a crew and members will expel those writers who are only out for themselves. […]"

Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant in 'Subway Art', page 74 and 50, first published in Great Brittain by Thames and Hudson Ltd, Londen, 1984

See also: (Close-ups piece above) http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/159-supplement-to-sarsential-00-22

Graffitihunt 1 ("Spaarnwoude"): http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/145-graffitihunt-1

Graffitihunt 2 ("A positive image and distinctive position is created over time by providing desirable products or services and communicating consistently and effectively. While a logo is just one component of that image, it is the one that identifies the others, operating like a flag."): http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/146-graffitihunt-2

Graffitihunt 3 (" [ Dutch ] Gulden note, printed in Haarlem."): http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/148-graffitihunt-bonus

Graffitihunt 4 ("Name graffiti initially had a territorial function. Gang members marked out their turf and the local kids wrote for their friends or for their enemies. [...] As available space on walls and trains filled up, it was necessary to develop a style to make a name stand out from the rest. Kids began to practice variations on their names and to develop identifying logos which could be read at glance"): http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/149-graffitihunt-4

________________

¹ www.allcityblog.fr., 'Amsterdam: GVB': http://www.allcityblog.fr/32115-amsterdam-god-vicious-babies/

Above: PGIA SAR BLMTT 13K. Sarsential 18: der Ortssinn, "[S]ich von jeder Gegend schnell eine richtige geometrische Vorstellung zu machen und als Folge davon sich in ihr jedesmal leicht zurechtzufinden. Offenbar ist dies ein Akt der Phantasie. Zwar geschieht das Auffassen dabei teils durch das körperliche Auge, teils durch den Verstand, der mit seinen aus Wissenschaft und Erfahrung geschöpften Einsichten das Fehlende ergänzt und aus den Bruchstücken des körperlichen Blicks ein Ganzes macht; aber daß dies Ganze nun lebhaft vor die Seele trete, ein Bild, eine innerlich gezeichnete Karte werde, daß dies Bild bleibend sei, die einzelnen Züge nicht immer wieder auseinanderfallen, das vermag nur die Geisteskraft zu bewirken, die wir Phantasie nennen." [Visualisation: being able to find one’s place exactly at any time]

"[T]he [runner] must commit the business he has in hand to a corresponding space which his eye cannot survey, which the keenest zeal cannot always explore, and with which, owing to the constant changes taking place, he can also seldom become properly acquainted. [H]e who by talent and practice overcomes it will have a great advantage on his side […]. This very peculiar difficulty must be overcome by a natural mental gift of a special kind which is known by the – too restricted – term of Orisinn sense of locality. It is the power of quickly forming a correct geometrical idea of any portion of country, and consequently of being able to find one’s place in it exactly at any time. This is plainly an act of the imagination. The perception no doubt is formed partly by means of the physical eye, partly by the mind, which fills up what is wanting with ideas derived from knowledge and experience, and out of the fragments visible to the physical eye forms a whole; but that this whole should present itself vividly to the reason, should become a picture, a mentally drawn map, that this picture should be fixed, that the details should never again separate themselves – all that can only be effected by the mental faculty which we call imagination. If some great poet or painter should feel hurt that we require from his goddess such an office; if he shrugs his shoulders at the notion that a sharp gamekeeper must necessarily excel in imagination, we readily grant that we only speak here of imagination in a limited sense, of its service in a really menial capacity. But, however slight this service, still it must be the work of that natural gift, for if that gift is wanting, it would be difficult to imagine things plainly in all the completeness of the visible. […]"

Carl von Clausewitz, 'On War', page 71, first published in Germany by Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin, 1832

Sarsential 19: walk [ exit trough the giftshop ]

"The cliche about sculpture, that the sculptor finds the statue which is waiting in the stone, applies equally to [film-] editing; the editor finds the film which is waiting hidden in the material."

British film editor Tom Priestly quoted by Ralph Rosenblum and Robert Karen in 'When The Shooting Stops... The Cutting Begins', page 273,  first published in USA by Da Capo Press, New York, 1979 

"When we align with our purpose, passion long lost is once again ignited." 

Mark Divine in his recently pubished blog, accompanying his excellent keynote lecture at Colgate University on September 18th: http://sealfit.com/sealfit-blog/part-3-uncover-your-purpose-ignite-your-passion/

"[The] opening adage of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, China's classic novel of war and strategy, best captures the essential dynamism of Chinese geopolitics ["Here begins our tale: The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been"]. At its heart is the millennia-long struggle by China's would-be rulers to unite and govern the all-but-ungovernable geographic mass of China. It is a story of centrifugal forces and of insurmountable divisions rooted in geography and history -- but also, and perhaps more fundamentally, of centripetal forces toward eventual unity. [T]he Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, may be nearing a deal that would enable him to return to his Tibetan homeland. If it happens, it would end the Dalai Lama's exile in Dharamsala, India -- an exile that began after the Tibetan uprising in 1959, nine years after the People's Republic of China annexed Tibet. More important, a settlement between Beijing and the Dalai Lama could be a major step in lessening the physical and psychological estrangement between the Chinese heartland and the Tibetan Plateau.[…] The very existence of the Tibetan issue bespeaks several overlapping themes of Chinese geopolitics. […] The Tibetan Plateau and its environs constitute roughly one-quarter of the Chinese landmass and are a major source of freshwater for China, the Indian subcontinent and mainland Southeast Asia. The high mountains of the Himalayas make a natural buffer for the Chinese heartland and shape the complex geopolitical relationship between China and India. […] The Dalai Lama has concentrated the Tibetan cause into himself and his image. It is the Dalai Lama who represents the Tibetan identity in foreign capitals and holds a fractious Tibetan movement together, holding sway over both indigenous Tibetans in the homeland and the old and new generations of Tibetan exiles. [T]he Dalai Lama's international prestige exposed the central power in Beijing to numerous international critics. […] The peaceful path promoted by the Dalai Lama is respected, but not guaranteed forever, by the younger and more radical elements of the Tibetan movement, which have only temporarily renounced the use of violence to achieve their political goals. […] Over the years, the Dalai Lama repeatedly has expressed a strong desire to return to the Tibetan homeland, seeing it as an end goal in his longstanding efforts to gain Tibetan autonomy. […] The report of the Dalai Lama's possible return to Tibet comes as Beijing has resumed talks with representatives of the spiritual leader. This round of negotiations comes after nine rounds of failed talks over the past decade and four years after the last attempt. Nonetheless, the mood appears at least somewhat optimistic on both sides. In recent weeks, the Dalai Lama has offered conciliatory comments about Xi and intimated that he could be open to returning to Tibet, a longstanding desire of the 79-year-old spiritual leader. For its part, Beijing has released some Tibetan political prisoners and reportedly allowed the Dalai Lama's image and words to be used in certain Tibetan regions after years of prohibition. […] This dynamism is not limited to China. The Scottish referendum and waves of secession movements -- from Spain's Catalonia to Turkey and Iraq's ethnic Kurds -- are working in different directions. More than half a century after World War II triggered a wave of post-colonial nationalism that changed the map of the world, buried nationalism and ethnic identity movements of various forms are challenging the modern idea of the inviolable unity of the nation-state."

Zhixing Zhang in 'Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces at Work in the Nation-State' on the Stratfor website, published yesterday: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/centripetal-and-centrifugal-forces-work-nation-state#axzz3EA2yWnta

Above: PGIA SAR 30K BLT. SAR [ Sarsential 1 ] : empty canvas [ route, terrain ].

"Barefeet keep me running. Shoes keep shoes running." Anonymous

"Peace is easily maintained;
Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.
The brittle is easily shattered;
The small is easily scattered.

Deal with it before it happens.
Set things in order before there is confusion."

Lao Tze