Grand Lodge of California Sept. 28th

Alice and I will be in San Francisco during the Grand Lodge of California's Annual Communication Sept. 28th -30th, and we are truly looking forward to being there. We lived in Los Angeles (Studio City, actually) for five years, back in the disco era of the late 70's, but we never got to visit San Francisco. Looking forward to reconnecting with Wbro. John Heisner, Dan Sola, Fred Kleyn, San Diego brethren I met in Scotland earlier this year.

I've actually been invited to speak on Friday Sept. 28th by Wbro. Adam Kendall and the Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum as part of their exhibition of The Initiated Eye, a presentation of paintings by Peter Waddell dealing with the Masonic architecture of Washington DC and the founding brethren who were Masons – of which both are the subjects of my book Solomon's Builders.

Whether you have the chance to stop by during Grand Lodge or not, I strongly encourage California Masons to support this exhibit at the Nob Hill Masonic Center. The paintings themselves are fascinating and they visually explore a subject that has rarely been depicted in art before. The exhibit started at the Octagon Museum in Washington in 2005, and was well received by the public. It seemed to touch a strain of special interest by non-Masons, since the film National Treasure had just been released shortly before the paintings were exhibited.

Wbro. Adam Kendall is doing great programming at the Grand Lodge museum – the exhibit on anti-Masonic propaganda may be a first for US Masonic museums, and has fascinating material. Coming from a jurisdiction that doesn't have a facility like this, I urge California Masons to take advantage of this wonderful resource.

On the downside, I'll be too late for the John McLaughlin concert on Sept. 22nd. On the upside: Alcatraz!