Wish You Could’ve Known Cali’s Dad
Cali’s Dad is Tullio Petrucci. I’m convinced he’s watching over everything we do. He lived his life as an artist who focused on the audience. The name of his company was Interactive Entertainment. He cared about a two way, three way or four way interchange between the audience and the producer.
He would have totally gotten what we’re doing with GeekBrief.TV and he would have inspired us to do a better job. Actually, I think he does.
We lost him before we started the show. It sucks and we hate not having him as a visibly active part of what we do. Tullio Petrucci, father of Luria Petrucci (aka, Cali Lewis) was/is an amazing man. He accepted me and my love for his daughter. I couldn’t have done that so gracefully because she is way too exceptional.
It’s around the anniversary of when we lost him. We wish he was actively, physically here advising us and helping us succeed. It’s hard not to believe, though, that he’s here in spirit helping more than he possibly could in the flesh.
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My wishes are with you guys… I wish I could have met the great Tullio Petrucci.
Mr Tullio lives on in spirit, as you’ve elegantly described. Both Cali and you have challenged how podcast shows could go, both openly and humbly. Keep up the great work guys!
Thank you for this note Neal. You had left me wondering with your tweets not to mention a little worried. I am lucky that I still have my parents as I am the same age as Luria.
I’ll be remembering you guys this weekend.
My condolences are out to you and Cali. Tullio Petrucci sounds like an incredible man from what you have said in this post.
Indeed he can see you from the other side. And he is proud, very proud. He smiles on you both.
My thoughts are with both of you as you go through this difficult time.
My grandfather was a huge influence on me. He is where I got my sense of faith. He taught me that it was faith, not religion, that was important. He passed away almost 12 years ago now. Every time I meet a new person that I really like, I think about how I wished they could have met him. I know of no one that did not or would not have liked him.
I believe, as you do, that these people who were important to us while they were living, are watching over us and that our memories of their spirit help guide us through our lives.
You are both in my thoughts and prayers.
Tony
Thanks, Neal. I wish I could have known him. But through Luria and you, I can glimpse him, and that is something quite exceptional. I hope I can hear more stories about Tullio in the future. I’d like that very much. My thoughts are with both of you.
Cali and Neal, I am so sorry for your loss. My dad passed away two years ago when I was 23. I love him and miss him more than anything in the world. He passed away less than two months before my wedding. I hope and pray that he was looking down on me on that special day. I wish he could be here so that I could give him a hug. I wish more than anything in the whole world. But more than that I wish that he is at peace.
I am an only child, so I was really close to my father. We were so much alike. I think about him and miss him all the time. I know it is harder on certain days.
Please know that I am here for you both if you ever need to talk.
You guys (and girl, Lindsay) are amazing! Thank you. We were watching a video of him, which is what brought this all on.
Oh, weird. I’m signed in as Neal…I’m Cali, no Neal, lol!
Our condolences on your loss. Anniversaries and Father’s day and birthdays are all hard; they bring it all back, don’t they?
My stepfather, Bob, was our biggest supporter when we decided to hit the road. He read our blog every day and always wanted us to have streaming video out the front windshield. I wish that Qik had been available while he was still alive. He would have been thrilled.
When I write, I write to Bob. He is my audience, even though we lost him in November 2006. I’m sure Cali’s Dad is still your #1 fan and is proud and thrilled.
“The only measure of your words and your deeds will be the love you leave behind when you’re gone.” -Fred Small
Great post Neal. Cali, I’m so sorry for your loss. I feel your pain.
My brother passed away at 33 yrs old in 2005 (it will be the 3 yr anniv in one week) from stage 4 colon cancer.
This week (actually the entire month of June) gets me down every time. I would have thought 3 yrs time would have helped me heal a bit, but to be honest it hasn’t. Maybe it never will.
I do know when his spirit is around me, though. Only I know and it’s that big brother feeling I get as if he’s watching me or protecting me or even guiding me.
Your Dad is definitely smiling at the both of you, for you both do such good to the human kind. That kind of gift is never taken for granted.
Celebrate your Dad as I will try to celebrate Steve.
Jeff
Hey guys,
It sounds like Cali’s dad was a really great guy. It would have been cool to have him involved in GBTV. Maybe you could dedicate part of the big trip to him. That would be cool.
Is this him?
http://www.thegaartcollection.org/artists/tulliopetrucci.htm
You said he was an artist. I just kinda put 2 and 2 together.
As long as you think that it’s possible for spirits to help you, that is all that matters. Because if you believe it hard enough, how can it not be true.
I feel like I should go hug my parents right now. All the arguing sounds pointless when you hear about somebody else’s loss.
Oh Cali…how I feel your pain. I lost my grandmother, my life-song, three years ago and this month as been especially hard on me. Seeing Neal’s post of David Phelps singing No More Night has me here bawling…partially because I miss her horribly, but partially because she is with Jesus singing and praising Him as one day, I will. I will hug my parents closer…and love them despite their faults…and hope that you know what a gem in Neal you have as his love for you will always remind you of how much your father loved him loving you.
I’m praying for you….
Hugs,
Kat Curlee
Dear Neal and Cali,
It’s so odd. I am re-reading the polish of a novel I’ve just finished. I based a character on a man I once worked for, who I cannot forget. His influence will never leave me either. His name is/was Tullio, and he was a filmmaker and founder of AND Media. That was 1974.
On a whim, I typed Tullio’s name into Google and found this site. I feel very sad right now. Would you feel comfortable telling me how Tullio passed and when?
Yours sincerely,
Avram Gold
I knew Tullio very well and, like you, know that he is still with all who were his friends and students. I was one of Tullio’s students at the Atlanta School of Art back in the 1960s when he first started teaching there. I have thought for many years how I could express the influence that Tullio had on people. I think it distills down to something like this: he introduced his students and all who knew him to the meaning of the Divine in Art and Life. It was an elevating experience to know him. Later we became close friends and worked together on several pioneering multimedia projects in Atlanta. He was a great Artist and technological visionary – for example, back in the 60s he understood the relationship between computer technology and the visual arts (something almost no one else was thinking about back then). Working with one of his friends, who was a computer engineer at Lockheed, Tullio actually designed a very early digital controller for multimedia theater presentations (about the 1968 timeframe). He was the producer/director of an Emmy winning public television program called Urban Mythology, which aired from Georgia Public Television in the early 1970s. I can say without reservation that Tullio was the greatest creative influence on my life. His kind does not often walk among us and those of us how had the honor of knowing him are blessed.
i just came across this post about tullio. i am sad to know that he has died. tullio was my teacher at the Atlanta College of Art between 1964-1968. he was a VERY special teacher and an even more special person and artist and thinker. he had dramatic influence on a small but extremely creative and successful group of young artists in that time. i always thought of him as a magician or a sorcerer, maybe more accurately a SHAMAN.
in my 40 year teaching career i never fail to try (in what ever meagre way i can) to emulate him, as he was in my mind the reference by which all teaching and artists and thinkers must be measured. like tom pittard says; i feel blessed to have known him as a teacher and a friend.
I was a very good friend of tullio’s in the early 70s. Lost contact and just happened to google his name tonight, which is how i found your blog. I had no idea that he died. Can you give me any more information?
Thank you, Bill and Tracy!
Tracy, I sent you an email with more details surrounding my dad’s death.
Greetings,
wanted to add my appreciation for Tullio as well. I was TA under him during my second year at Atlanta College of Art. That was about 1968. I helped him with some of his first films and remember a pillow sequence of feathers flying with a local band Nitty gritty dirt band playing in another room for backup. I can still hear the loud whir of the high speed camera he had rented as it flashed through a roll of film in seconds.
No year passes that I do not think of Tullio, he was a great influence on me. His mind was always active in so many areas. I remember a conversation with him about how we do not need sleep, something that has guided my life to work for money and work for my art on the other side of a day. I do sleep, just not that much.
My friend Leila Yarborough still has his etching press he sold her. It took me back years when I visited her around 2005 and saw the press in her garage.
I have to believe that Tullio inspired me to design and build the machines I have constructed, in his manner of experimenting in building. I remember his film ovelay machine he built, to superimpose one film over another. He gave me the confidence to just get in and make it happen even when you may not even know the technology all that well. I’m sure he knew better than I, but he gave me inspiration to jump in and hit the ground running.
thanks for having this site, so much.
Ron McDowell
mcdowellron2000@yahoo.com