I am fascinated by Free Masons...the history, the veiled secrecy, the power and mystery. There is this incredible Masonic Temple in Philly that I never toured in all my years growing up there. The last time we went home for a visit it was the only thing I wanted to do. I enlisted my brothers and father to join us and set aside an entire afternoon so we could take our time and really soak it all in. The thing is, the Masonic Temple is not a place you can just drop by and visit. They wouldn't let us in...seems you have to make an appointment like 112 days in advance and practice the secret wink (which I cannot do dammit) and handshake to even be considered (okay well that's not true but it may as well have been). All I got was the pamphlet they gave away at the front door. I was devastated. My brother, Jackson, works at The American Philosophical Society and my mother at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. This provides us with all sorts of carte blanche into the secret passageways in these monumental establishments - Jackson even convinced me that he could get me into Benjamin Franklin's private library (and also pulled out out all the minute ledgers from the original group meetings in the earliest days of the APS for me). But I could still not be consoled. In July of this year we will be going back home for another visit...and this time people, the first goddamned thing I am doing, is going inside that effing Masonic Temple and touring the shit out of it. I am unstoppable. Let the countdown begin.