Cinema Grotto

My Fellow Prophets,

This month, we lost a wonderful brother and two-time Past Monarch, James “Jimmy” Cunningham. He was very dear to all of us, and we wish his wife Cynthia and the Cunningham family the best in these hard times.

The memorial service will be held at:

Old West Masonic Lodge

June 11, 2017 (Sunday) at 3:00 pm. 

19310 Avenue of the Oaks

Newhall, CA 91321

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, any donations can be made to the Job’s Daughters (Attn: Peggy Hill) and forwarded to Old West Lodge.

This month, our meeting was held on the 19th at 7:30 pm at Old West Lodge in Newhall, CA followed by Fellowship at a new place that was amazing: Casa Vieja!  The food was delicious and the service was rather quick!  I’m confident that those who were there liked it!

Our third Brunch took place on Saturday May 13^th at 10AM (changed from the usual 2^nd Sunday due to Mother’s Day!)  We got a great seat by the window and the food was amazing! PM Chad Goertz and I must have taken down the entire crab legs they had!  Excellent service, view and food too!  Our next Brunch is Sunday July 9^th 10AM at the Odyssey again!  I look forward to seeing y’all there!

Our meeting went smooth and we made some progress toward the Magic Castle Séance room.  Prophet Dave Taylor will have a concrete date available for us next time.  It is very limited selection and limited to 12 prophets only, so we need to lock in a date and make this happen!  I am going to plan another Magic Castle Trip with wives during the summer as well and possibly a Vegas trip!  The year is progressing great gents, and I’m loving every second of it!.

Hoping to see some of our fellow Prophets and PM’s that haven’t been able to make it at the coming June 16 meeting!  If anyone needs a ride, please reach out and let someone know!

I hope you all had an amazing Memorial Weekend full of laughs, great food, great memories of those you have lost and always kept in our thoughts and hearts the brave men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice for us to be able to even exist and have fun in one of the greatest countries in the world!  God bless you all, God bless America!

As always, Shirts and Fez!

Yours in Fellowship,

Armen Adzhemyan

Monarch of Cinema Grotto

My Fellow Prophets!

Our meeting is at 7:30 pm on April 21, 2017, Old West Lodge in Newhall, CA followed by Fellowship at our fixture: Chi Chi’s Pizza! Btw, if anyone has a suggestion for post-meeting fellowship locations other than Chi Chi’s please verbalize at the meeting!

April is a significant month for me as an Armenian as the 102nd commemoration of the Armenian Genocide is on April 24th. 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were brutally slaughtered during WWI by the Ottoman Turkish Empire and until this very day, they absolutely deny it as Genocide and actually teach in Turkish schools that the Armenian people actually killed their own people during that time! Unbelievable as there are zero facts to prove that theory and there are ancient Armenian churches and statues still on that land they took. There is a movie coming out on 4/21 called “The Promise” and I encourage all my fellow Prophets to check it out if they have the time. Perhaps we can make a Grotto social sometime during the week!

Last month we had our usual meeting and welcomed a new Prophet! I’d like to continue this trend and add as many new MM Brethren as we can! Let’s continue our quest to grow the Grotto and make it as great as we know it is!

Hoping to see some of our fellow Prophets and PM’s that haven’t been able to make it at this coming Friday’s meeting! If anyone needs a ride, please reach out and let someone know!

Let’s try to finalize the Magic Castle reservation day and see who can make it and then plan a nice big Grotto social event at a venue TBD sometime in July. Thoughts…?

As always, Shirts and Fez!

Yours in Fellowship,

Armen Adzhemyan

Monarch of Cinema Grotto

Happy March Brother Prophets!

Our March meeting was another successful one with a good turnout! That’s 3 for 3!  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the Prophets and Past Monarchs for taking the time to be at our meetings!  You all are much appreciated!  To those that aren’t able to make it, you’re missing out!   

But please note that I and the other Brothers are always available in case anyone needs a ride to the meeting!

This past meeting we were fortunate enough to welcome Brother Prophet Robert Petrovit into the Realm!  He fits right in to our great group of guys…in a friendly sort of way. 

We made some baby steps toward organizing the Magic Castle Seánce Room and CJ Michael Schneider spoke briefly on the full form ceremony.

Our second of six Brunches took place on March 12th at the Reseda Annual Pancake Breakfast benefiting Masonic Youth.  We arrived strong, Shirts and all and took great pride being there knowing we were supporting a great cause.  Some of our Prophets proceeded to the 94th Aero as well.  All in all, good fellowship was promoted!  Our next Brunch is scheduled for Saturday May 13, 2017 at the Odyssey in Granada Hills!  Looking forward to it!

Life is good gentleman and so are we!  I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to see if they know any good MM Brothers that might want to join our Grotto and help us grow! Also, see if anyone knows a CP youth in need of dental work!

See you all on 4/21/17, as always: Fez and Shirt!

Monarch Adzhemyan 

Monarch Adzhemyan with newly-initiated Prophet, Robert Petrovit

My Fellow Prophets!

With a blink of the eye, January has ended and we are going full force into February.

Our meeting is at 7:30 pm on February 17, 2017, Old West Lodge in Newhall, CA followed by Fellowship at our fixture: Chi Chi’s Pizza!

I would like to take a moment to thank everybody that stepped up to assist and donate to our Past Monarch Chad Goertz in his time of need, be it shoveling mud or donating what you can. As Masons and Grotto members, it is our duty to assist our Brethren in their time of need and I feel like we all stepped up. His campaign on GoFundMe is still up and anyone who can continue to assist, I strongly urge you to go ahead and do so!  Link: Goertz Family – GoFundMe

Last month we had a Brunch at the 45th Aero Squadron and it turned out rather well and that brunch along with similar events throughout the year is something I want to entertain to strengthen our bond as Brother Prophets, potentially bring back some Prophets that we haven’t seen in a while and even spark the interest of some Mason’s that want to become Prophets. Our next Brunch is on March 12th at the Aero Squadron at 10AM once again. I encourage all the Prophets to bring like-minded people over to show them how the Grotto has a good time (even in the AM).

As Chairman of the Membership Committee, I have been in touch with a few people that haven’t been back in quite a while (2 years minimum) and have made some progress in having Prophets either catch up with their dues and/or return to the Grotto! Let’s see what happens on Friday! So far, our newly initiated Prophet Stuart W. hasn’t ran for the hills so I’d say that we are off to a GREAT start, I especially loved seeing the “Second Section” make a come-back.

As you all know, Past Monarch Daniel Hood is Western Grotto President this year and I want us to take full initiative to put on the Initiation Play in its full form with costumes and all. Chief Justice Michael S. has been appointed to spearhead that movement and I would like us to honor our PM Hood by performing the ceremony!

Also, as we are arranging our year, I was so happy to see all the Brother Prophets step up to make the entire payment to renew our Magic Castle membership! Special Thanks to Brother Chad, Dave and Michael for stepping up the previous years. Let’s make a visit happen soon!

Don’t forget your Grotto Shirts and you Fez! See you all on Friday!

Yours in Fellowship,
Armen Adzhemyan
Monarch of Cinema Grotto

My Fellow Prophets!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

I hope everybody had a great Christmas / Holiday season and is looking forward to a great 2017!

Our first meeting of the New Year is at 7:30 pm on January 20, 2017, at Old West Lodge in Newhall. I would like to thank Past Monarch Levi Quintana for leading us through another successful year, steadily growing in numbers and of course our internationally known fellowship at Chi Chi’s where Prophet Tim Lahr recruits Farmer’s Only Members and we have a steady stream of onions from Prophet Ralph Morton! Always a great time with you all there! I encourage everyone to bring families as well if possible!

We shall be graced by our amazing Past Monarch, Joey Lamberti as Supreme Council District Deputy in his official visit and PM Dan Hood, NEW President of the Western Grotto Association! I smell a bourbon/grape juice tasting coming very soon at his lovely home! (With or without his permission! )

The Grotto has always been great, really it is such a great Grotto, ask anybody that knows about it and they’ll tell you how great it really is but I’m going to make the Grotto Great-er again! New Prophets already in line to join, a steady stream of events lined up, our BBQ’s, charity dental events, family events, a fund raiser and hopefully a trip out of state!! I would also like to resume going to Blue Lodges again to raise awareness about our organization and increase in numbers!

This shouldn’t be a shock but I am requiring ALL members to come in their Fez and Grotto shirt (Thank you to brother Gonzaga for assisting with the orders!) for every single meeting and event or prepare to receive a $5 penalty each time, no exceptions. In the month of November, I will be utilizing the total penalties accumulated and put towards a surprise Grotto shirt/red-tie event!

I hope to see everyone at our first meeting of the year prepared for a great time and year ahead! As a reminder, please pay your hefty Grotto dues to remain in good standing and get On the Line (online) to CinemaGrotto.com for regular updates!

Yours in Fellowship,
Armen Adzhemyan
Monarch of Cinema Grotto

My Fellow Prophets,

Winter is coming…

… and by the time it has arrived, we will have a new Monarch!

Yes, the time has come for me to step down as the head of Cinema Grotto and allow a new sucker… I mean Brother… to take the helms and lead us onward. As cliché as it may sound, looking back, this year has gone by so fast. I am damn sure I will never forget it.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween and even though Christmas decorations are going up everywhere, let us not forget that that one little known holiday Thanksgiving falls somewhere in between those two.

At our next meeting on Friday, we will have Joey’s official visit to the Grotto as our Inspector, so everyone be on your best behavior. Let’s try to get as many of us to attend to see to that.

And next month, I will look forward to sitting in the audience with all of you.

As always: Stay safe and I’ll see you all at the Lodge.

Yours in fellowship,

Monarch (for the last time!) Levi Quintana