‘NOLA: Freemasonry and the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’

    

Hurd Hatfield in The Picture of Dorian Gray, MGM, 1945.

Second in a series recapping my recent trip to New Orleans.

I fell asleep the night before with the television on and awoke June 5 to Albert Lewin’s The Picture of Dorian Gray from 1945. After breakfast at the Clover Grill (how do they make the eggs like that?!) and while hurrying to get ready for the day of museum hopping, the TV was still on. You see a certain theorem on the chalkboard. The “Non ignoravi mortalem esse” translates, according to some Google hits, to something like “I have not ignored to be mortal,” which could make for a snappy answer to Memento Mori, if you’re an Al Jaffe fan with a better command of Latin.

It was a great day. At 400 Esplanade Avenue, you get two for one: downstairs is the Old U.S. Mint; upstairs, the Jazz Museum. If you ever collected U.S. coins and gathered a Morgan dollar, maybe there is an O on its reverse. That initial means the U.S. Mint at New Orleans struck that coin, as it had in the manufacture of hundreds of millions of dollars in gold and silver coinage between 1838-61, and 1879-1909.

I’ll have to remember to share this with Civil War Lodge of Research: These scraps of fabric are believed to be remnants of the U.S. flag once flown above the U.S. Mint in New Orleans. Early in the Civil War, Commodore David Farragut sent Marines into the city to seize the Mint, for obvious reasons. Mr. William Mumford, with a few accomplices, allegedly managed to steal the flag, and Mumford reportedly wore the flag’s tatters on his jacket henceforth. U.S. Gen. Benjamin Butler had Mumford hanged in front of the Mint on June 7, 1862. An outraged Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Butler to be executed immediately if ever captured.

Its museum is a small space, but if you or someone you love is a numismatist, it’s worth visiting.

Upstairs is the New Orleans Jazz Museum. During my research before the trip, I thought maybe a museum devoted to jazz and located in New Orleans would be something on a Smithsonian scale, but not quite. Still a must see, but I was hoping for deeper history than what is offered. There actually was a near absence of Louis Armstrong, which the museum explained is the result of its preparing for Satchmo’s birthday—today! August 4, according to his baptismal certificate—with a special exhibit. The Mint building is the site of Satchmo Summerfest this weekend, if you’re in the neighborhood.

I really thought there might be a Masonic clue somewhere in the exhibits, given how many jazz legends were Freemasons, but I missed it if there is.

In late afternoon, after a bite and a beer at one of the ubiquitous Willie’s Chicken Shacks, I roamed the French quarter and did find something Masonic—finally, after stalking the streets for more than forty-eight hours. A jewelry store on Royal Street had these rings in its window:

Typical Masonic supply company catalog fare.

Satisfied somewhat, I took a seat on the steps of the courthouse on Royal, joining a few homeless men, and lit up an Aroma de Cuba Monarch—a fine Fuente product! Also in my research, I found smoking is prohibited just about everywhere, yet the stench of marijuana is ever-present, so I thought quality tobacco should be represented.

I’m rambling because my memory is failing. I thought this was the day I had visited the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, but that actually was June 6. Anyway, I arrived there late that morning and did find a few Masonic items, plus several mentions of famous Masons.

All Masonic historians know how Masonic halls served their neighborhoods in many ways: as schools, post offices, civic meeting spaces, polling places, and even houses of worship.

This is a facsimile of Bro. C.L. Schlom’s Masonic patent from 1902. He was at labor in South Memphis Lodge 118 in Tennessee. It remains of the rolls today, as Memphis 118, and will meet this Thursday at 7 p.m. for its August communication.

And from the Famous Masons Department:

T.R. kicks ass. Typically, when we think of him vis-à-vis Russia, it’s about ending their war with Japan, but apparently he had earlier interactions.

I’ll have to research Jonas Phillips because he was a fascinating figure in Revolutionary America. I believe the quotation above is borrowed from his petition to the Continental Congress of September 7, 1787, in which he lobbied to avoid religious requirements for Federal office holders. During the war, he would write correspondence in Yiddish, confounding the Redcoats who intercepted the letters. A few websites say he was a Freemason as of 1760. Maybe. I’ll check it out.

      

‘Terra Masonica is on YouTube now; sequel is planned’

    

Terra Masonica is available on YouTube now. The two-hour (in two parts) documentary from 2017 was uploaded several days ago, and can be enjoyed free of charge—legitimately. And keep reading for word about a sequel. From the movie’s publicity:

What is Freemasonry today? Who are the Freemasons? Since 1717, Freemasonry has expanded worldwide. Throughout the centuries, this phenomenon has become impregnated with the different local cultures on the five continents. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Freemasonry, this extraordinary world tour in 80 lodges unveils, for the first time, these ancient and fascinating communities. Terra Masonica takes us to meet Masons in everyday life, sharing their history and vision of a changing world.

It’s impressively photographed and smartly edited. The film is at its most poignant during the segments shot in Scotland, Norway, Ukraine, Mali, and Spain, although the stops in India and Israel leave impacts as well.

A sequel, Terra Masonica 2: The Widow’s Son, is forthcoming. (Has nothing to do with the motorcycle club.) Click here to visit the Terra Masonica YouTube channel.

     

‘It was sixty years ago today’

    

Walter Shenson/Subafilms

At this hour sixty years ago, the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show.

While there are a few Freemasons depicted in the cover art of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, there aren’t Beatles-Craft connections that I know about, except. . . In 1965, the group filmed their second movie, Help!, which includes this quick, silly exchange between Ringo Starr and Alfie Bass:

Ringo: “Does this ring mean anything to you?”

Doorman: “Freemason?”

Ringo: “He’s from the west!”

Doorman: “Nah, east—Stepney!” 

The Beatles previously had been Quarrymen, but they never were Freemasons. It’s not too late! I’m sure Chelsea, St. Cecile, or any lodge would love to have Ringo or Paul.

     

‘Nazis vs. Freemasons’

    

Nazis vs. Freemasons documentary.

Sounds almost like a soccer match but, no, Nazis vs. Freemasons is a new film from Free Documentary on the subject of the Masonic archives looted by Nazi Germany during its conquest of Europe in World War Two; those records’ subsequent seizure by the Soviets; and the surprising return of 28,000 meticulously labeled files to their original owners, despite reluctance in the Duma, at the close of the last century.

Free Documentary is one of the many brands of Quintus Studios. Based in Germany, Quintus is an aggregator of documentaries it has uploaded to YouTube for more than ten years for our enjoyment free of charge.

Free Documentary

Nazis vs. Freemasons: Looting of the Lodges recounts the story of how and why Nazis, commanded by Alfred Rosenberg, plundered the Masonic buildings in Germany and the countries sacked by the German army, confiscating all kinds of archives, libraries, and possessions. The Masonic items later were shipped to Moscow, where they were lodged for more than fifty years.

Of Rosenberg, Holocaust Encyclopedia says:

On November 9, 1923, Rosenberg participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, which resulted in Hitler’s arrest. Tasked by Hitler as interim leader of the Nazi Party, Rosenberg struggled to prevent the Nazi movement’s disintegration. After Hitler’s release, Rosenberg returned to journalism and began his chief work, The Myth of the Twentieth Century, published in 1930…

Based on a selective reading of earlier works of philosophers, neo-pagan authors, and racial theorists, such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the volume embodied a dichotomist world view that positioned the “Aryan” and the Jewish “races” irreconcilably against one another. All the fruits of Western culture, Rosenberg posited, had evolved solely from the Germanic tribes; yet the Roman “priestly caste” which had arisen with Christianity had combined with Freemasons, Jesuits, and “international Jewry” to erode this culture and with it German spiritual values.

Free Documentary

From the Masonic perspective, the film highlights the explanation offered by Pierre Mollier, one of the Grand Orient of France’s best known scholars. We also hear from historian Patricia Grimsted, who brought the archives to light after the collapse of the Soviet government—and was denounced as a spy, among other experts.

Some takeaways from the film:

Free Documentary

◆ These archives are not mere inanimate objects and dry documents. They comprise nothing less than the fraternity’s lost “collective memory.” Facts unknown by anyone living, even about Lodge of Nine Sisters in Paris, have been exhumed to illumine our past.

◆ Nazi venom for Freemasonry wasn’t merely loathing of Enlightenment (and anti-fascist) thinking. Heinrich Himmler believed Freemasons “held mysterious esoteric powers.”

◆ The Soviets’ interest in Freemasonry was more practical. They wanted to know about Masonic political networking to learn if Masonry had members inside the Communist Party. Also, knowing that many Western politicians and generals were Masons, they sought to leverage Masonic knowledge to infiltrate that leadership.

There’s no sense in me writing at length about the documentary. Click the image at top and watch the 51-minute film, posted to YouTube about a week ago.

My thanks to Bro. Don for alerting me to the film’s arrival on YouTube.

     

‘Film project: Spearshaker: Knowledge is Power’

    

You likely have at least heard about the “Francis Bacon was the real William Shakespeare” theory that has been around more than a century; built into that is the notion that Bacon was a Rosicrucian and Freemason. Feel free to pull out your copy of Hall’s Secret Teachings of All Ages and refer to the chapter “Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians.” In short, there is doubt that uneducated, regular guy William Shakespeare could have authored the Folio and the poetry. Some of those plays include sly references to things currently happening at court, and it is contended that Shakespeare could not have known of such things, whereas Bacon had been immersed in it all.

Anyway, a teaser of a film project was unveiled this month, and I hope a full production isn’t far behind. From the publicity:

Spearshaker is an epic historical script for a new film project in development about the Secret Life and Times of Sir Francis Bacon.

The script is the culmination of more than thirty years of historical research into this extraordinary and elusive man. It covers his enigmatic life and the secret aspects of his legacy.

• The lost, last Tudor, son of Elizabeth the ‘Virgin’ Queen
• The true author behind the immortal name Shakespeare
• The leading light and inspiration behind the Rosicrucians, a secret fellowship devoted to a Universal Reformation of the Whole World.

Spearshaker website. All enquiries here.

Watch the concept trailer and subscribe to the YouTube channel to get more updates on film developments.

That’s Jonathon Lawrence Freeman in the title role. Also, if you are on X (once Twitter), seek out @BaconSpeare for frequent news about this fledgling film and all things Bacon-Shakespeare, to wit:

Click here for @BaconSpeare.

And, yes, there is Shakespeare Lodge 750 (constituted 1874) in Manhattan; and, in England, Shakespeare 284 (est. 1792) in Warwick; and Shakspere 1009 (est. 1864) in Manchester.

     

‘Shadows in the City at MoMA’

    

Bro. Ari Roussimoff’s long lost film will be brought back to life at MoMA next month. Shadows in the City will be illuminated on screen at the Museum of Modern Art October 5-11 thanks to the museum’s Department of Film. From the publicity:

A story of suicidal obsession, conceived as a work of “contemporary horror,” Shadows in the City was the last major work of New York’s 1980s No Wave film scene. Shot over seven years in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, painter-performer Ari Roussimoff’s only fiction feature captures the urban desolation of the city in the decade before gentrification. This definitive work of “outsider cinema” boasts a who’s who of local cult figures, including Bruce Byron (star of Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising), Taylor Mead, Annie Sprinkle, Joe Coleman, Nick Zedd, Kembra Pfahler, Valarie Caris, Catfish Hayes, Clayton Patterson, the Hell’s Angels, and, in their final screen appearances, Jack Smith and documentary filmmaker Emile de Antonio.

MoMA

Following limited screenings at New York’s Millennium, Angelika, and Bleecker Street theaters, the film was presented as an “expanded cinema” event with live performance at Limelight in 1992, and later in Germany and the Netherlands, before disappearing when Roussimoff became “preoccupied with other things.” Out of circulation thirty years, this original 16mm release print is being presented one last time before the Museum begins digital restoration.

MoMA

Heavily influenced by the German Expressionist films Roussimoff saw at MoMA and in repertory screenings in the 1960s and ’70s, Shadows is a strung-out mash-up of noir art film, Neorealism, and the carnivalesque that plays out in a series of scripted and improvised scenes. Upon its release, the Russian-born Roussimoff was dubbed “dean of the disenfranchised” by the underground press, with Downtown magazine describing Shadows as a “combination dagger-in-the heart and pie-in-the face of the official counter culture.” The film’s documentation of New York’s physical and cultural landscapes of the 1980s is more arresting now than ever.

On Thursday, October 5, Roussimoff and the film’s art director, Clayton Patterson, will present the screening in conjunction with the publication of Patterson’s In the Shadows: The People’s History of New York City Underground Tattooing.

Ari just confirmed it.

If I’m not mistaken, Shadows in the City was the last film shown at Bleecker Street Cinema when it closed for good in ’91. (I don’t know why I recollect such trivia. I wish I had that talent with Masonic ritual!)

Ari is with Manhattan Lodge 31 in the First Manhattan District.

     

’Secrets of the Mystic Knights of the Sojourners’

   

The Plot Against Harry opened at Film Forum on Houston Street. Play and advance to the 56-minute mark.

There is nothing at all Masonic in the plot of The Plot Against Harry, but there’s a minute and a half of funny fraternal initiation along the way.

An independent film—so independent that twenty years lapsed between its completion and its 1989 release—that recalls Cassavetes and La Nouvelle Vague, its beauty is revealed through steady deadpan absurdism (either you get it, or you don’t) and gelastic supporting characters. Which takes us to the meeting of the Mystic Knights of the Sojourners into which eponymous antihero Harry Plotnick (Martin Priest), a freshly paroled numbers-runner, is initiated, thanks to his lavish gift to the order’s pediatric hospital.

The Mystic Knights of the Sojourners initiates Harry Plotnick in Michael Roemer’s The Plot Against Harry.

Again, not Masonic, but there’s plenty to recognize and laugh at.

The Commander of the Mystic Knights (Leonard Margolin) presides over the initiation.

This is eighty-one minutes of ethnic humor, despairing misfortunes, and an O. Henry-like climax that Gene Siskel labeled “a very difficult film to describe,” and co-host Roger Ebert concurring with “I don’t know where to start with this movie.” The acting is supernal—effortless maybe—by the cast of unknowns, none of whom seemed to have achieved any progress in film or television.

Leo (Ben Lang), at left, the current husband of Harry’s ex-wife, sponsors his initiation.

The Plot Against Harry opened in revival Friday night at Film Forum, and will play through September 7. I caught it during my university days somewhere in midtown. If New Yorkers still went to the movies, that run would be extended a week, but get there when you can.

UPDATE: Extended through the 14th!

     

‘New film: A Way of Light’

   

Word has just come from Bro. Francis Dumaurier about a new short film from the National Grand Lodge of France commemorating the 300th anniversary of Anderson’s Constitutions. An English-language version is available on YouTube:

RW Bro. Dumaurier is the GLNF’s Grand Representative Near New York.

     

‘New short film from UGLE’

    

It strikes me as unusual when a Masonic grand lodge displays continuity in thought, word, and deed, but in this instance it’s the United Grand Lodge of England, which employs paid professionals who support the fraternity leadership, so there is that asterisk. I refer to “Inventing the Future,” the current messaging heralding this year’s commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Anderson’s Constitutions.

I have relayed the news of Quatuor Coronati 2076’s events in celebration of the tercentenary. (Forget about the Virginia conference. Mark said it is not to be.) An exhibition in the Museum of Freemasonry is open through the end of the year. I told you about the historical reproduction of the text from Lewis Masonic. Ric Berman’s book, Inventing the Future, is out. Yesterday was a rare Especial Meeting of the Grand Lodge, attended by 1600 visiting brethren, in London. And I learned last night of a newly released short video and a podcast upcoming, both devoted to “Inventing the Future.”

The Surrey 1837 Club

Yesterday inside Freemasons’ Hall, London.

I am beginning to discern a pattern.

This short film, produced by Matthew Mitchell, is a treat. This facet of “Inventing the Future” is a 29-minute speculation, leavened with humorous dialogue, into how the Constitutions were conceived and written, plus how the Duke of Montagu came to be the first noble Grand Master of the flourishing Grand Lodge of England. To wit:

The new podcast is still to come, and I certainly will link to it when it debuts, but it will be apart from the also new Craftcast, the UGLE’s official podcast.

     

‘House of the Temple film made available’

    

On October 18, 1915, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite dedicated its headquarters located in Washington, DC. A masterpiece by architect John Russell Pope, the House of the Temple remains as active today as it was a century ago—but you know that.

What you may not have known is that film footage of the dedication ceremony was found in recent years, and it was released yesterday via YouTube for your enjoyment.

Host Maynard Edwards is joined by Chris Ruli to introduce the film and explain all the history involved.

     

     

‘Kybalion screening Saturday’

    

UPDATE: Another screening has been scheduled for Saturday, May 21 at seven o’clock.

In keeping with the news of films and videos in recent days, here’s an update on Ronni Thomas’ The Kybalion I told you about a long time ago: The movie was released earlier this year and has been shown here and there. On Saturday, The Kybalion will be screened in Brooklyn. From the publicity:

The Kybalion

Saturday, April 9

7 p.m.

Film Noir Cinema

122 Meserole Avenue, Brooklyn

Tickets here

This film is an adaptation of the 1908 occult manuscript The Kybalion, and explores the seven principles of Hermetics. It is a surreal documentation of the supernatural world around us.

Q&A with writer Mitch Horowitz and director Ronni Thomas will follow after the film.

The Kybalion is not Freemasonry, but Hermetic thought is evident in the rituals of the lodge. I recommend The Kybalion text published a few years ago and edited by Horowitz.

     

‘The Art of Enlightenment’

   

And, speaking of film (see post below), if you happen to find yourself in Paris next Friday, maybe enjoy a screening of a Masonic-themed animated film during a conference organized by Jean-Luc Leguay. (If the name sounds familiar, Leguay paid a few visits to Masonic Hall six years ago, lecturing at the Livingston Library and in l’Union Francaise Lodge 17.) From the publicity:

The Art

of Enlightenment:

An Initiative Path

to the Sacred

Friday, April 8 at 8 p.m.

Novotel Noisy le Grand

Paris

Open to the public (€10)

RSVP here

Respectable Lodge Sons of Noah 1615, under the National Grand Lodge of France, invites you to the ultimate screening of Jean-Luc Leguay’s animated film Consecration de Loge and attend the conference given by the master.

     

‘Ben Franklin gets the Burns treatment’

    

Benjamin Franklin, revered Freemason, Founding Father, inventor, natural philosopher, statesman, entrepreneur, and more, is the subject of a two-part biography by filmmaker Ken Burns. It can be seen starting next Monday on PBS television and streaming.

I am doubtful the film will say anything about Franklin’s Masonic association. He was a busy man who milked the utmost from his eighty-four years in this world, whereas Burns’ story runs four hours.

Ken Burns, in his forty-one years of producing documentaries, has touched the periphery of Masonic history many times. Some of his previous biographies (Lewis & Clark, Mark Twain, The Roosevelts) honed in on famous Masons, and many of his histories bump into the works of others (The Statue of Liberty, The National Parks). Then, of course, his epic anthropological films (Jazz, Baseball, Country Music) unavoidably discuss the lives and deeds of a number of Masons.

It was on that basis that I once emailed him about twenty years ago to pitch the idea of a film on Freemasonry. Granted, it’s a huge subject, but it encompasses story elements that figure into his documentaries. From the giants of history astride the globe, to folks you might know living their lives on Main Street—with race relations and women’s inclusion in the mix—human progress is encapsulated in the Masonic story. There is a bottomless inventory of archives and artifacts, material culture and ephemera, art and music to drive Burns’ use of photographs and movie reels that supplement his interviews, narration, and cinematography.

I never did hear back.

     

‘Expect the unexpected (and the expected)’

    

I have to learn to expect the unexpected and remember to expect the expected.

Yesterday was one of my busy quarterly Saturdays, with the research lodge in the morning and AMD at night.

At New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, we took it easy. Expecting many of the brethren needing to depart early for lodge installations, Christmas parties, and other idiomatic demands of the season, Worshipful Master Marty planned accordingly. One change that proved popular was substituting our usual luncheon for breakfast. It might sound like an obvious tweak for a lodge that meets in the morning, but this was a first for us after nearly twenty years at labor. The Master and Wardens prepared scrambled eggs and omelettes, pancakes and French toast, bacon and sausage, plus something called “pork roll” (Taylor Ham in the civilized part of the state), and more.

The brethren had one of those trade show table covers made for the lodge to use at large Masonic events here and there. (Marty photo)

It was very greatly appreciated, and could have been improved only with fine cigars, but we had the next best thing: Bro. Byron took to the lectern to discuss various commonalities he discerns in Masonic lodges and cigar shops. Or at least the type of tobacconist that offers a smoking lounge.

Both the lodge and the lounge are spaces where certain rituals, both individual and group, are followed to uphold harmony in human interactions. Not mere politeness, but an inspiring energy (“egregore” was a term used) that unites all present in a shared purpose. Byron spoke of the universality of smoke rituals, which reminded me of my long ago lecture on incense in Freemasonry. It was asked from the sidelines if maybe a good coffee place or bagel joint would function similarly, but the tobacco shop has the requisite peculiarity that beckons a specialized clientele sharing their unwonted pursuit.

Next up was the Brother Senior Warden, who was excited to tell us about Bro. John Bizzack’s book For the Good of the Order: Examining the Shifting Paradigm within Freemasonry. Bro. Don admitted how although this book spans about a hundred pages, he nevertheless feels compelled to read it a second and third time to harvest every informative notion from its pages. Bizzack, who ought to be a Blue Friar, explains the key to securing a future for the Craft is in embracing smallness for the fraternity and reverting to its neglected traditions and many standards of excellence. (A familiar message to regular readers of this blog.)

Bizzack is a longtime Board member of the Masonic Society. He is a principal of Lexington Lodge 1, the Rubicon Masonic Society, and other great elements in Kentucky Freemasonry. I am eager to hear back from him in the wake of the tornado there. He’s okay, and Lexington didn’t suffer badly.

Between this and the upcoming AMD meeting, I had to make up my rassoodock what to do with the day. The nearby movie theater made the choice easy: House of Gucci. I had a basic familiarity with the brand name, but I never knew they were killing each other! Elements of early Roman Empire and Shakespearean tragedy, but wrought in recent years. A great cast (Jared Leto as patetico Paolo!) led by that psychiatrist of film directing Ridley Scott.

And then it was time for J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees. Fortunately both the council and the research lodge meet in the same space and on the same days because these meetings are far from Magpie Headquarters. If it’s December, this must be the annual meeting: elections, installation, housekeeping, and even some time for a short presentation from the lectern.

Bro. Tom was elected to the Sovereign Master’s chair, was qualified, and then installed. The rest of the officer corps was figured out after some confusion (several members have left for a newly chartered council, but haven’t withdrawn from Gronning) and there was much rejoicing.

Tom is well known for having attractive and unique pins made, and for generously sharing them. He presented each of us with one of these tokens of AMD membership.

Tom’s son, Steven, now Senior Deacon, spoke on the subject of money. The crypto part went over my head, but I think the gist of it was money, in whatever form, is symbolic. It can represent anything from the time of your working life to the freedom you might think you possess. Disquieting ideas for these worrisome times.

Like his father, Bro. Steven also is a gift-giver, handing each of us the pin he had commissioned for his tenure next year as Worshipful Master of Amwell Lodge 12. A pretty hefty one—about the diameter of a half-dollar.

One surprising detail I didn’t expect was the arrival of Tom’s dog, Mason, in the meeting. I’m told it’s something of a tradition.

And, what I completely did not expect was the near total indifference toward—and even lack of awareness of—the most recent scandal in the grand lodge. I’m pretty indifferent myself, but I’ll try to recap: the grand master removed the elected and installed senior grand warden from his station recently, alleging dereliction of duty. A few of the past senior grand warden’s friends vocally protested this. One, a prominent past grand orator, had his membership suspended last Thursday in the usual jerseyprudence: no charges, no trial, no due process. A past grand master was advised to cool it. A past district deputy grand master had his name put on a list.

Oh, man! There’s a good Gucci joke I could make here.

Anyway, at the research lodge, the brethren were aware of the problems, but were not interested. It’s just the “same old, same old” in the eyes of the wise. At AMD, hardly anyone seemed to know about it. Most of the brethren are a little older, and practically everyone, I think, is focused on the York Rite, with little, if any, concern for the grand lodge. I’ve been in both groups for two decades, so I should have known that, as focus groups, they would be unresponsive to this stuff. Sometimes you have to expect the expected.

UPDATE: A week later, it has become known that three of the past senior grand warden’s allies have been suspended per edicts from the grand master, pending the “preferment and disposition of Masonic charges,” for allegedly disrupting the peace and harmony of the fraternity with their protests on social media of the defrocking of their friend. Will they receive speedy, fair, etc. trials? I don’t know. I do know the lawyer who represents the grand lodge will enjoy many billable hours of income at the brethren’s expense.

     

‘My Dinner with Andre’

   

It has been decades since I last watched it, so there’s a lot more to get out of it now. Try it.

Louis Malle seats you in a booth at Cafe des Artistes with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory for quail entrees and conversation. The former, the attentive ear, is a Square of dependable, resolute ninety degrees. The latter, the instructive tongue, is the Compasses extended to extremity.

At length, Gregory tells of his extrinsic doings during bizarre travels about the face of the earth in recent years. A monk here. Experimental theater there. Observations on a world in waking sleep. There even is talk of a chamber of reflection in the woods followed by a ritual raising. Wally Shawn counters with rhapsody for simple domesticity: a coffee, a book, quietude with his girlfriend.

They would appear to be irreconcilable.

The film has the feel of improvisation, but in fact it was scripted meticulously. (Best Screenplay of 1982, BSFC.) The photography is scientific—you may catch yourself absentmindedly fiddling with the white tablecloth while listening. The restaurant actually was a set constructed inside a defunct hotel in Richmond, Virginia, but the orbiting waiter (Jean Lenauer), cadaverous and imposing, is a wry detail viewers of a certain age will smile at.

Oh, and music by Satie!

One year after the film’s release, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, conversationalists themselves, asked the actors what in retrospect, if anything, they would do differently. We’d trade places, they answered.

     

‘The Order of the Phantom Knighthood’

     

Why can’t the makers of crappy movies leave us alone?

Incidentally, this is the kind of nonsense inspired by silly neo-templarism.

     

‘33 & Beyond’

     

I have seen 33 & Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry, and it is good.

I finally had chance to watch Johnny Royal’s 2017 film love letter to the fraternity yesterday and, while I won’t write a review, I recommend it.

The movie runs 90 minutes. With numerous interviews and footage of various untiled Masonic persons, places, and things, it relates philosophical interpretations of the degrees of Craft Masonry, the A&ASR-SJ major degrees, and the York Rite too.

In the interviews, we hear from young and not so young, and from famous and not yet famous brethren. Most, I think, are Californians, including Kendall, Cooper, and Doan; and there are Oklahomans Bob Davis (now Grand Master) and the late Jim Tresner, both of whom, unsurprisingly, are indispensable.

Conspicuously missing are any New Yorkers—the closest we get is a three-second clip of a homeless guy on MacDougal Street—but I guess you can’t have everything.

Watch it on Prime Video or Xumo. And stay through the end credits for a funny coda.

     

‘Shriners movie due this year’

Happy New Year!

One of many things to look forward to in 2021, possibly, will be a movie about the Shriners.

Johnny Royal, who made the documentary 33 and Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry in 2017, will be back in November with a new production.

I can’t find much information on American Shriners of Freemasonry, except that it “explores the 150-year legacy of the Shriners, their connection with Freemasonry, and the impact their culture, rituals, and fellowship have had on American society and fraternal organizations.”

     

‘The First Hermetic International Film Festival’

     

The what?

The First Hermetic International Film Festival.

What?

The. First. Herm.Etic. Inter.Nation.Al. Film. Festi.Val.

Really?

I guess so. Click here. “First” doesn’t mean premier. It’s actually in its third year. The “first” refers to it being the original film festival of its kind.

The festival is available on Occultrama. It began last Thursday, and continues through Wednesday. Twenty euros admission.

I don’t know anything about any of these movies, but look at this list of festival awards:


Best Picture – Mercure Award
Best Feature Film – Caduceus Award
Best Short Film – Sulphur Award
Best Feature Documentary – Paracelsus Award
Best Documentary (Short) – Pelican Award
Best Foreign Documentary – Rosenkreuz Award
Best Animation Film – Apuleio Award
Best Web Serie – Black Lion Award
Best Experimental Film – Vitriol Award
Best Music Video – Kenneth Award
Best Director – Agrippa Award
Best Editing – Ficino Award
Best Cinematography – Fludd Award
Best Music – Atalanta Award
Best Storytelling – Cagliostro Award
Best Topic – Jodorowsky Award
Best Research – Eco Award
Best Sound Design – Theremin Award
Best Performance – Sabbath Award
Best Protagonist – Wormwood Star Award
Best Production Design – Ritual Room Award


New York Film Academy is among the official partners.