Two New Paintings by Italian Artist Costantino Proietto Surface in the United States - 2012

 

Two New Paintings by Italian Artist Costantino Proietto Surface in the United States

Since July 2011, I have been investigating an ongoing art mystery involving twentieth century modern impressionist master, Costantino Proietto (1910 – 1979). Among the most startling revelations, from the LoCastro family in New Jersey is that I have been spelling the artist’s name incorrectly. Originally, I understood his name to be “Constantino Proietto”, but after verification by two friends of the artist, I shall henceforth call him by his given name, Costantino Proietto.

After spending over seven months coaxing Google to recognize his misspelled name, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for Google to shift their search algorithm back to the proper spelling. In order to assist them, I have changed all my previous mentions of C.Proietto on the internet to the proper spelling of his name.

Many C.Proietto paintings that now reside in the United States originated in Stuttgart, Germany. Stuttgart had been an Allied bombing target during World War II, later becoming a major center for U.S. Military operations in Europe. Today, the 6th Area Support Group (ASG) is located in Stuttgart, providing command, control, communications and Base Operations to Headquarters United States European Command (EUCOM).

Why the Sicilian born artist immigrated to Germany during World War II, we do not yet know. Judging by the number of people and paintings with ties to both C.Proietto and the U.S. Military, it appears that the artist lived in Stuttgart for many years. With the recent discovery of more new pictures, it appears that he painted real life locations. In order to create those scenes, the artist probably made many trips from Germany to Italy and Switzerland. I have one report that he painted within the walls of the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican.

This morning, when I opened my email, I had more good news. Peter Karns of Severna Park, Maryland provided images of two newly discovered C.Proietto oil paintings. Both works are family treasures, purchased by Peter Karn’s father, who served as an aide to a U.S. Army senior officer in Germany from 1944 to around 1946.

Both Karns family masterpieces appear on this page. One is an impressionist Italian coastal scene, with ethereal Mediterranean light. The other features a Swiss Chalet, with a river to one side and the Alps reaching for the sky in the background. Although I do not know either location, perhaps readers of this article could comment the locale of the two new C.Proietto pictures. (Author's Note, July 2012: The coastal scene is of Capri Marina Piccola. The alpine scene is of Northeastern Italy and the Dolomite Mountains.)

Costantino Proietto’s skill in depicting the sky is unrivaled in modern impressionism. In his Swiss Alps scene, the artist blends the granite of the mountains with the sky above. In the coastal picture, he employs mist or fog to blend light and color between sea and sky. Although these images do a good job of bringing out the artist’s interplay with water and light, viewing the effect in his original works is even grander.

In the near future, we expect to hear from more friends, family and collectors of Costantino Proietto. If any reader has pictures or information regarding the artist, please send an email or click on “Comments” below. Because so many of his works included Italy’s Amalfi Coast, we once called the artist “The Man from Amalfi”. With so many new Costantino Proietto works now surfacing, we may have to add, “The Man from Stuttgart” to his biography.

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By James McGillis at 04:39 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (3) | Link

LA County Fire Department Aerial Truck 8 at the Hollywood Bowl - 2012

 

LA County Fire Department Aerial Truck 8 at the Hollywood Bowl

On a recent trip to Hollywood, California, I decided to visit some of my favorite historical places, including the Hollywood Bowl. Rather than watching a concert, I just wanted to see the place on a Sunday afternoon. Upon arrival at the parking lot, I realized it had been almost thirty-nine years since my last visit, on September 7, 1973.
 
I still have fond memories of that classic night at the premier Hollywood venue. Some call it “The Lost Concert”. Others Google “Elton+1973” and find Harvey Jordan’s classic image of Elton John playing live at the Hollywood Bowl. To this day, my Elton John 9/7/73 T-shirt from that night is a treasured artifact.
 
When I was growing up, every boy wanted to be either a “fireman” or a “policeman”. Today, every child, regardless of gender can aspire to be a firefighter or a police officer. Still, the little boy in me stopped and stared when I saw Los Angeles County Fire Department Truck 8, which is an immense “tillered ladder”, with separate rear wheel steering. Also called a tractor-drawn aerial (TDA) or hook-and-ladder truck, it featured a turntable ladder mounted on a semi-trailer "lorry", as the British might say.
 
In motion, it would have two drivers, each with separate steering wheels for the front and rear wheels. The fifth-wheel articulating design provides a short turning radius and high maneuverability. Rear trailer steering allows the “tiller driver” to negotiate tight corners and congested streets in and around its West Hollywood home base.
 
With research, I discovered that Truck 8 is A Quint truck is both a pumper and a ladder truck. A "Quint" has: 1. a pump, 2. hose, 3. a water tank, 4. ground ladders, and 5. an aerial ladder. Truck 8 has a 1000-gpm pump, and carries 300 gallons of water, and 25 gallons of foam, delivered through a pre-piped aerial waterway. Truck 8 carries 218 ft. of ground ladders, an Amkus Rescue System and seven air bags. With only 300 gallons of water onboard, Truck/Quint 8 supplements available resources rather than acting as an engine/truck combination.
 
Truck 8 was immaculate, from bow to tiller. There was no grease, grime or even dust on its traditional high-lacquer red finish. With its pristine look, I would not have guessed that the truck had already seen fourteen years of service. To me, it was timeless, as were my wishes to fight fires and save lives. Growing up in Los Angeles in mid-century, I watched the TV show “Rescue 8” and the later TV show, called “Emergency”. Both shows featured LACoFD Station 8, where Truck 8 stands ready today.
 
On the front bumper of the aerial truck was a large black and white sticker featuring the old Route 66 logo. Seeing the distinctive logo, I recalled that nearby Interstate I-10 (the Santa Monica Freeway) was the replacement road for Old-66 through Los Angeles. During a recent spate of arson fires in and around Hollywood, Truck 8 responded to the multiday fire-related disaster.
 
After recovering from my daydreams of being the tiller driver on Truck 8, I spotted members of LACoFD Station 8 conducting a live firefighting drill in the parking lot. As their water source, they employed Engine 8, which operates a 1995 KME 1000-gpm engine. Wearing yellow waterproof gear, Firefighter Darney, trained a powerful water hose skyward, casting an arc of water gently across the sky. On first look, it looked like a waste of water. Stepping closer, I saw that he directed the stream of water into the extensive landscaping throughout the terraced parking lot.
 
With the old Pilgrimage Theater cross standing on the far hillside and the sun at his back, the firefighter trained the powerful stream of water back and forth across the landscape. As he did so, the cascade of falling water created a rainbow all around him. It was a glorious sight on a clear winter day in the City of the Angels. Later, I realized that Coney the Traffic Cone had sidled up close to the firefighter, to take in all the action.

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By James McGillis at 03:11 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

Refraction of Sunlight on a Kiewit Crane Creates Potential Air Disaster in LA's Sepulveda Pass - 2012

 

Refraction of Sunlight on a Kiewit Crane Creates Potential Air Disaster in LA's Sepulveda Pass

On January 29, 2012, I visited the Mulholland Drive Bridge replacement project and got a close-up look at progress there. Starting in Hollywood on a clear afternoon, I drove Mulholland Drive until its intersection with Interstate I-405. There I traveled west across the remaining north side of the Mulholland Drive Bridge. After parking my car and surveying the scene, I soon found a perch that overlooked the freeway and construction project.

With the natural light on my back, the late afternoon sunshine provided good visual contrast at the ongoing project. Along with the remaining half-bridge, new support structures and construction cranes fought for dominance of the scene. The Kiewit cranes had the upper hand, with their great, latticed booms dominating the vertical scene. Less than half as tall as were the twin derricks, massive new freestanding bridge-supports imparted strength and security to the scene.

Each of the massive crawler cranes had a cab painted in the signature gold color of Liebherr Cranes, a German manufacturer. That company, through its U.S. affiliate offers a wide range of mobile and fixed construction cranes. Each of the Sepulveda Pass cranes crane had a single latticed boom, which could be up to 89-meters (226 ft.) in length. With its boom painted black and sporting a white tip, the west-side crane created a high visual contrast against a clear Los Angeles sky. At that time, the east-side crane stood in full sun. After lifting a load with the crane, an operator came out of the golden cab and stood upon the huge crawler treads.

On the east-side crane, I could see the bridge contractor’s logo, with the name Kiewit painted boldly on the side of the long cab. Since the Mulholland Drive Bridge project required demolishing and rebuilding the bridge one-half at a time, these cranes shall see service at this site for years to come. Rather than simply leasing them for this job, it appeared that the contractor had purchased both of these cranes.

For some reason, I kept looking back to the golden crane on the east side of the freeway. Since so much of sunlight falls into the yellow and gold portions of the visual spectrum, the entire crane appeared to glow in the lengthening light. To me, the huge crawler crane appeared as a beautiful piece of kinetic sculpture. If I starred at it long enough, the golden crane virtually disappear into the scattered light of the sky. A shake of my head brought the skyward-reaching boom back into focus.

Before I departed the west side of the bridge, I stopped to take a picture of the lane closure created by the partial demolition of the bridge. When I turned the camera from horizontal to vertical, I realized that an old friend was standing guard there both day and night. It was Coney the Traffic Cone, of course. Too shy to speak, Coney had stood there for months hoping that someone would notice him as he warned motorists that half the bridge was missing.

When it was time to leave, I drove east across the bridge and then headed for the northbound on-ramp of the I-405. That ramp has a straight downhill run and enters the freeway just south of the summit and the bridge replacement project. As I descended the ramp and then drove under the bridge, I fired my camera shutter repeatedly. After entering the freeway, I stopped shooting as I passed close to the east-side golden crane.

Later, I uploaded my photos and began writing this article. As usual, I selected the pictures first and then wrote the text to match. It was then that I discovered the incredible disappearing crane. As you view the accompanying animated GIF image, you will see four frames in which the golden crane fades into the northern sky. Whether the golden crane poked through the veil and into another dimension, I cannot say. Perhaps it was simple refraction and diffusion of sunlight through the golden lattice boom of the crane.

Once I got over the metaphysical possibilities inherent in the scene, I realized that no matter the cause, the beautiful golden crane was a hazard to aircraft flying near the Sepulveda Pass. Although there are minimum elevation restrictions for commercial and private aircraft in Sepulveda pass, Kiewit’s Golden Crane still represents a danger to public safety.

Police chases on the freeways of Los Angeles are a regular occurrence. The first line of defense is the police cruiser or perhaps a CHP cruiser. Following in the air, is usually an LAPD helicopter. Above that, typically there are several TV news helicopters. With the golden crane disappearing into the haze of the northern sky, a Sepulveda Pass police chase could easily become an air disaster. If the angle of the sun is right, the pilot of a fast moving helicopter might not see the crane until it is too late.

As beautiful as the golden crane may be, it should be lowered and its boom repainted in high contrast black, with a white tip, just like the crane on the west side. Until then I will not sleep easily knowing that there is a huge Kiewit crane materializing and then dematerializing next to the busiest freeway in Los Angles.

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By James McGillis at 05:35 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

Automated Comment-Spammer "Good Finance-Blog" is a Hoax/Scam Phishing Website - 2012

 

Automated Comment-Spammer "Good Finance-Blog" is a Hoax/Scam Phishing Website

Over the past several years, http://goodfinance-blog.com has placed hundreds of hand-entered spam comments on my blog here at JamesMcGillis.com. Their key words are “loans, personal loans, business loans and SBA loans”.
 
The “Good Finance blog” is a “comment spammer” and phishing website with dedicated servers located in Luxembourg. Although they masquerade as a WordPress blog, complaints to WordPress result in immediate disavowal.
 
Do not let the GoodFinance Gmail address fool you. Although it appears on their website, the sole purpose of their business is to phish for your email address and other personal information.
 
By Googling “Goodfinance blog”, I discovered that their illiterate phishing comments appear on thousands of blogs around the world. If a blog is rarely updated, Good-Finance spam comments could easily overwhelm legitimate content.
 
Twice I have reported the Hoax/Scam Good Finance Gmail account name to Google, but emails still go through to that address. Until Google and the European Union take comment-spam phishing websites seriously, no blogger is safe from their trash. After discovering that fact, I could not keep silence.
 
Meanwhile, I shall go back to my blog and delete any new spam comments placed there by our friends at “Goof Finance”.

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By James McGillis at 11:59 AM | Technology | Comments (0) | Link

If You Think That Politics Stink, Then Give Generously to Sewer PAC - 2012

 

If You Think That Politics Stink, Then Give Generously to Sewer PAC

It has been over four years since the 2007 Quantum Leap Celebration in Taos, New Mexico. Since that time, new energy has been available for those who wish to partake. Yet, with the current global face-off between Old Energy and new, change is stifled. Entitlement thinking among self-appointed elites leads to abuse of power. In the news, selfishness, fear mongering and greed are the current winning strategies.

The 2010 Supreme Court decision favoring “Citizens United” is a good example. Through that decision, the court allowed shadow groups an unlimited voice in federal elections. Without divulging their contributors, “Super PACs” may now accept and spend unlimited amounts of money. In August 2011, Mitt Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”. According to our Supreme Court, perhaps they are.

After taking “appropriate expenses”, Super PACs use the remainder to produce negative political ads. Most of that ad money will go to media corporations that are key Super PAC contributors. For the energy, entertainment and media moguls, it is a case of having your cake and eating it too.

As they say, “Negative ads work”. With so much to lose, Big Money quickly pledged tens of millions of dollars to Super PACs. The resulting Super PAC ads have created a negative aura around the Republican primaries. With their inevitable negativity, Super PAC ads are likely to determine the outcome of the Republican primary race.

During a recent TV news show, I heard someone say “Sewer PAC”. What a fitting moniker, I thought. After my recent miss in registering “ChristianTingle.com”, I quickly bought the URL http://sewerpac.com.

If corporations and billionaires need a place to flush their money down the toilet, I can now provide one. Rather than writing about new energy and the environment in 2012, I plan to sell out. So hold your breath against the stench and watch for further developments at SewerPAC.com.

SewerPAC.com is for sale. The minimum bid is a “billionaire’s bargain” at only $1.0 million.

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By James McGillis at 10:53 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

In LA Traffic, Design Purity Outmaneuvers Common Sense - 2011

 

In LA Traffic, Design Purity Outmaneuvers Common Sense

In July 2011, Caltrans contractors demolished the southern half of the Mulholland Highway Bridge, which spans the busy Interstate I-405 Freeway at Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, California. The reasons for replacing only one-half of the stately structure at a time are obscure. Suffice to say that local homeowner groups held out for purity of design. Rather than allowing the road to jog at either end of the bridge, those groups forced Caltrans to build the same bridge twice, one-half each time. As they say, “Only in Los Angeles…”

People who drive in Los Angeles know that “The 405” is the only freeway route through the Santa Monica Mountains within twelve miles. Connecting the San Fernando Valley with West Los Angeles, the I-405 is an ever-widening ribbon of concrete, and one of the busiest highways in the world. In January 2012, I drove southbound past the construction site to Marina del Rey. My return trip that afternoon took me northbound over the same route.

On that morning, I timed my approach to the Sepulveda Pass for 10:00 AM. With luck, the morning rush would be over, producing a lull before afternoon traffic built to yet another peak. All went well until I neared the intersection of I-405 and U.S. Hwy 101. There, traffic slowed to a crawl and did not regain equilibrium for the next ten miles.

As I ascended the Santa Monica Mountain grade, traffic snapped and bucked like a Chinese dragon. In terms of vehicular energy flow, it was equivalent to an acute myocardial infarction. As I approached the crest, I could see why our traffic moved so listlessly. Appearing atop the hill since my last visit, two enormous mobile cranes stood like sentries, one on either side of the freeway. From my viewpoint, the cranes appeared to be twice the height of the 100-foot tall bridge. The scene was so startling that traffic slowed to a crawl and then stayed that way until I was well beyond the construction scene.

Based on traffic delays alone, the current replacement plan makes no economic sense. Once this slow motion economic disaster is complete, Los Angelinos can then look forward to doing it all over again. From the coming Carmageddon II, right through construction and opening, those who drive in LA shall experience traffic jam déjà vu all over again. With the uncountable hours wasted by drivers sitting in traffic below, we hope that the hilltop locals who blocked the single-phase project are happy now.

Thanks to the local “design purity movement”, motorists will experience inconvenience for years to come. I wonder what the late Steve Jobs would think of this version of design purity. Unless he personally owned a house with an unobstructed view of the finished bridge, I doubt that he would have supported this cause.

As traffic loosened up, my vitriol for the Mulholland Drive locals faded from my consciousness. Traffic broke free near Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, and I sailed along at 65 mph. After crossing under Interstate I-10 (the Santa Monica Freeway), I observed a complete absence of vehicular traffic on northbound I-405. As I approached Venice Blvd., I witnessed the culmination of a California Highway Patrol traffic break on the northbound side of the freeway. Led by an animal control van, two CHP cruisers and several CHP motor officers sped away from a phalanx of stopped traffic that stretched for miles into the distance.

Listening to a later radio traffic report, I learned that someone had called to report an injured cat on the freeway. For the sake of that feline and in honor of the kind soul who reported it, perhaps 25,000 vehicles came to an extended halt on the busiest freeway in Los Angeles. Upon entering an LA freeway, a small animal’s chances of survival are almost nonexistent. I am an animal lover and have a pet cat myself. Still, I hope that iPhone toting animal lovers do not report every small animal that enters the roadway. If they insist on doing so, Los Angeles traffic may never move smoothly again.

On my return trip, later that day, I approached Sepulveda Pass from the south. From there I could see the Mulholland Drive Bridge and its attendant cranes. Silhouetted against the northern sky, the two cranes, new concrete bridge supports and the remaining bridge deck manifested as art. It is a sight so awe-inspiring that despite traveling uphill, many drivers involuntarily slam on their brakes. As traffic-engineers know, if enough motorists hit their brakes, somewhere behind them, traffic will stop. My morning traffic had stopped three or four miles short of the dramatic hilltop scene.

As witnessed by their reactions to car crashes and brush fires, LA motorists have a perverse relationship with those who trail behind them. During such events, the collective reaction is predictable. To themselves motorists say, “I’ve been delayed by the unknown and now I can see it, so I am going to slow down and gawk to my heart’s content”. That day, of course, group consciousness among LA motorists was true to form.

My slow trips through Sepulveda Pass that day allowed me to see the sights. If you hope to view this high art sculpture for yourself, come to LA before 2016. If you miss the first round of bridge building, plan your visit for the second round in 2013 or 2014. Perhaps Caltrans can rejoin both halves of the new Mulholland Drive Bridge by 2015. Then, hilltop homeowners can emerge from their survival shelters and enjoy the purity of design that they forced upon us all. Thank you again, local homeowners, for triggering the super slow motion Carmageddon that we now endure.

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By James McGillis at 02:06 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

Free Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah - 2011

 

Free Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah

In May 2011, I drove Hwy 191 North to Canyonlands Field, which serves as both the commercial and private aviation airport for the City of Moab, Utah. It was a clear, windless and warm day at the airport. My friends Tiger Keogh and Terry Carlson, both of whom work at the airport, had invited me out to watch the flight action on that busy Saturday. Soon after I arrived, the Great Lakes Airlines plane from Denver, Colorado landed, followed quickly by several charter aircraft. Although the commercial traffic was interesting, voices in the sky kept interrupting my photographic work.
 

 

Watch First-time Parachutists in Full-motion Video Action

 

Since the land around Canyonlands Field contains so many ancient spiritual sites, for a moment I felt those spirits calling down to me. Looking up, I saw a series of skydivers contrasted by a thin overcast of clouds. Wheeling around in the breeze, their hoots and hollers reverberated across the quiet airfield.
 
Out past the Redtail Aviation hanger, where we share our MoabAirlines.com webcam, I saw beyond to the Moab Skydiving Epicenter. There, two separate businesses, Skydive Canyonlands and Skydive Moab offer tandem parachute jumps for novices and first-timers. With shouts of joy and abandon coming from all over the sky, I captured the scene using both live video and still images. To do that required juggling my Sony Bloggie Touch for the HD video with my ancient Sony DSC-F717 digital camera for the stills.
 
As soon as I arrived, a small Cessna loaded with parachutists taxied around the corner and took off. Soon, I could hear the plane circling above, but the bright sun masked my view. Until we heard shouts from above, no one below knew that jumpers were in the air. Looking up, I soon caught sight of several first-timers preparing to land. Friends were hooting from below, which set off more hollers from above.
 
One exuberant jumper ran all the way from the landing zone to the staging area. As tears of joy streamed down her face, “It was freaking awesome,” she declared to her friends. Indeed, it was awesome to see humans descending from a blue and white desert sky. The image of mythic humans descending from above conjured my own visions Moab Rockart, which often features the spirit of the ancients floating in the air.

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By James McGillis at 04:34 PM | | Comments (0) | Link