Cinema Grotto

Greetings Brother Prophets and Past Monarchs!

I have really been pleased with how our fraternity has been growing and evolving throughout the course of the last eight months.  Big things are happening, our bond as brethren has strengthened and we continue to grow our fellowship and fraternity by our activities both inside and outside of the lodge!

First and foremost I would like us to take a moment to absorb the recent terrorist activities that have occurred in the USA and elsewhere in the world, all sparked by the very thing that is meant to tear apart the love we have for one another as a people.  I as Monarch of this Grotto condemn such actions and promote Sympathy and Good Fellowship.  We as Masons and as Grotto Prophets must lead by example in our daily actions throughout life and hope others will follow.  Always remember that we are role models for everyone out there, be in on the road or in the streets!

For the first time in 25 years, Cinema Grotto under my leadership and being spearheaded by our very own Chief Justice Michael Schneider will be putting on the full form ceremonial, on Friday September 29, 2017 at Palm Springs Lodge #693!  Our first read through was a lot of fun and I’m certain our upcoming practice on September 2nd (Hosted by WGA President, Dan Hood) will be even better!  We still have parts open if anybody is interested!

It looks like we’ve set the next Magic Castle event for Saturday, September 16th. All initiated prophets are invited to attend. Please contact Master of Ceremonies, David Taylor, for more information. It’s always been good fun and I’m really looking forward to it once again! (El Ropo was my favorite!)

North Hollywood 542 (my Blue Lodge) will be holding a first ever Masquerade Ball featuring a silent auction and as a member, I am extending an invitation to my Grotto Family!  It will be held October 28^th 2017 at North Hollywood Lodge.  We will be having a silent auction during the Ball with the sales going directly to charity and I have asked my lodge to feature Cinema Grotto as one of the charities!!

Our UCP BBQ at the Dronfield House occurred this past Saturday, August 19th, and we had an amazing turnout!  Kudos to C.J. Schneider for all the hard work organizing the BBQs and the ceremonial!

Hoping to see many of you Prophets at our next meeting on September 15th and for post-meeting fellowship at Toppers restaurant!  If anybody needs a ride to the meeting, please do not hesitate to ask your fellow Prophets!

As always,

Shirts & Fez!

Armen Adzhemyan

Monarch of CINEMA GROTTO M.O.V.P.E.R.

My Fellow Prophets,

Our last meeting was at 7:30 pm on June 16, 2017, Old West Lodge in Newhall, CA followed by Fellowship at our new fixture: Casa Vieja!  This was our second time at this restaurant and again we were seated immediately on a Friday night, service was great and the food was delicious!

My Brother Prophets and Past Monarch’s, I understand that it may be inconvenient for us to take time out of our week on a Friday night, once a month to be able to attend Grotto but let’s not fall apart now after all these years of Grotto fellowship and make a valiant effort to attend our July meeting!  The past two meetings, I have had to assign attendees to sit in on Grotto Officer seats.  Especially if you’re an officer in the line, it is your duty to send me a text at the least and let me know that you are unable to attend the meeting so that I may prepare in advance.  It is not fair to those in regular attendance to have to sit around and wait.  Please Brethren, make an effort and let’s enjoy our time together for who knows what the future holds.

With that said, summer is here! Full force, heat and all! The meeting went really well, we finally conducted a full read-through of the full form initiation ceremony and with the help of our very talented Prophets, it was quite the spectacle!  We laughed, we read, we learned a few things and I believe everyone enjoyed it!  I am really looking forward to putting on this ceremony later in the year!  With an asset like Prophet Donald Gipson with his awesome acting and reading skills, I am sure it will be a great performance!  C.J. Schneider is doing a great job spear-heading the whole thing!

BTW: The UCP BBQ’s are scheduled on July 15 at the Dronfield House and August 19 at the Hubbard House!  We always have a great time and the residents and staff really appreciates our attendance!  So please make an effort to be at the Dronfield house on the 15^th along with me and your fellow Prophets and let’s have another great BBQ!

Hopefully we shall have an update on the Magic Castle Trip during our next meeting, and if we’re be good enough for our PM Roger Puckett to attend!

Cheers Gentlemen! I hope you all had a great 4^th of July at the parade and with your loved ones!

As always, Shirts and Fez!

Yours in Fellowship,

Armen Adzhemyan

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