Holy Calendar of Armeno-Kemetic Neopagan Pantheism (AKNP)

 

 Holy Calendar of Armeno-Kemetic Neopagan Pantheism (AKNP)

A modified ancient Armenian calendar incorporating Armenian, Kemetic, and Wiccan Holidays

Years

The Armenian year is calculated from the date of the original founding of Armenia, August 11, 2492 BCE. The Gregorian year 2007-2008 correlates with the year 4500 on the calendar. An easy way to convert the current year from Gregorian to Armenian is with the equation: 4,500 + (current year - 2007). So, however many years ago 2007 was plus 4;500. The coming year as of this post will be 4516. 

Months

The Months of the Armenian calendar are the chief ones observed by this calendar. The Kemetic months are noted, however, and each dedicated to a different Netjeru (𓊹 , Egyptian Deity; Armenian dieties are called Astvadz, Astvadzner in plural). There are twelve months of thirty days, and extra five days at the end of the year (six on a leap year, which in AKNP coincides with the Gregorian Leap Year for simplicity). To properly convert dates to the Gregorian calendar on a leap year, move everything a day back from February 29 to August 9, with August 10 being the “leap day”, after which the calendar will sync up again. 

Each day of the month has a different name, rather than a number:

1. Areg	16. Mani
2. Hrand	17. Asak
3. Aram	18. Masis
4. Margar	19. Anahit
5. Ahranq	20. Aragats
6. Madegh	21. Grgor
7. Astghik	22. Kordouiq
8. Mihr	23. Tsmak
9. Dzopaber	24. Lousnak
10. Mourts	25. Tsron
11. Yerezkan	26. Npat
12. Ani	27. Vahagn
13. Parkhar	28. Sein
14. Vanat	29. Varag
15. Aramazd	30. Gisheravar

In Armenian letters:

1. Արեգ	16. Մանի
2. Հրանդ	17. Ասակ
3. Արամ	18. Մասիս
4. Մարգար	19. Անահիտ
5. Ահրանք	20. Արագած
6. Մադեղ	21. Գրգոռ
7. Աստղիկ	22. Կորդուիք
8. Միհր	23. Ծմակ
9. Ձոպաբեր	24. Լուսնակ
10. Մուրց	25. Ցրօն
11. Երեզկան	26. Նպատ
12. Անի	27. Վահագն
13. Պարխար	28. Սէին
14. Վանատ	29. Վարագ
15. Արամազդ	30. Գիշերավար

Կյանքի Ռիտմ; The Rhythm of Life

“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” - Theodor Reik.

The rhythm of life (Gyanki Rritm) refers to repetitive cycles in life. Time is a coil, not a straight line with a beginning and end. The present is a culmination of the past. One can look at the present as the past happening all at once. The overlapping coils of time create cycles of four and ten years, doubling as eight, twenty, etc. During this cycle, life and world events will repeat themselves in some way, as a “rhyme”, not always a direct repitition. Two similar events four to ten years apart might not always sync up to the exact date, but may appear within a few months of doing so. This is a pattern I have noticed since childhood. Its most obvious appearance is during leap years, where every four years we once again have events such as the Olympics and presidential elections in the US, although these events are deliberate, and the rhythm of life also covers non-deliberate events over which we have little to no control. Noticing this pattern helps one learn from past mistakes, and at the beginning of the year, anticipate whether or not it will be a difficult year. It will not always manifest as expected. The events cannot be accurately predicted, but forecasted, like a weather report. (Leap years in particular have been increasingly difficult years lately, as forewarning.)

The ancient Armenian calendar, upon which most of this is based. Although this particular calendar starts on the Birth of Vahagn, Spring Equinox, while I follow the Navasardian calendar which begins August 11th.

Holidays of the Armeno-Kemetic Calendar 

Armenian Dates/Gregorian Dates

You know what most calendars are missing? Holidays where you sit around and contemplate your own mortality. So I made my own. Because I know the rest of society isn’t going to follow most of these holidays, most of them are days to prompt private reflection and make offerings to the Gods. Some holidays are political in nature, but I focus on the spiritual aspects of them. I also include Wiccan holidays on my calendar, not because I’m strongly Wiccan (my practice might fall under some form of Eclectic Wicca, but I’m not trying to follow traditional Gardnerian Wicca), but just because I like their holidays, especially Samhain and Yule, and the idea of the Wheel of the Year. The Gods of Armeno-Kemeticism are the Netjeru 𓊹𓊹𓊹 from Kemet, and the Astvadzner Աստվաձներ of Armenia/Urartu (Biainilli). I have used the Kemetic names of the Netjeru rather than their better-known Greek names. Anpu=Anubis; Asar=Osiris; Aset=Isis; Djehuti=Thoth; Heru=Horus; Het-Heru=Hathor; Nebet-Het=Nephthys; Sutekh=Set(h). 

Հրոթից Նպատ/August 5 ~ Wep Ronpet (𓄎, Wp-rnpt) : Kemetic New Year, coincides with the rise of Sothis (Sirius), and in Kemet before the Aswan dam was built, the flood of the Nile. This date varies depending on one’s latitude; in Kemet it’s generally agreed to be July 17, August 5 is the date in Aisland (colonial name: Brevard County, Florida, formerly home to the Ais people), and it happens to sync up with the Armenian calendar quite well. The month of Wep Ronpet is sacred to Ra, who in Armeno-Kemeticism can be merged with fellow Sun Deity Aramazd (Ar in earlier Armenian beliefs) to become Ar-Ra. 

Top 7 Songs of the Month 𓃩 July 2023 𓃩 Slow Danse with the Dead, Pretty Addicted, FEVR

June still doesn’t feel very long ago. Already the year is over half over, and from this point on the days shorten, and we slide back into darkness once more. For me July is kind of a transitional month. The last month in both the ancient Egyptian and ancient Armenian calendars. The hits have still been coming though, of course. And I’ve been working on more mixtape projects. 

I do still plan on finishing that neopagan manifesto I started in my last blog entry, I just need time. I wrote a bunch of it out actually, and Blogger glitched out and deleted most of it. That was why I uploaded it unfinished in the first place. I think I better write in a separate document and then copy and paste it into the blog from now on. 

As per my new tradition, be sure to have a look at the Top 3 songs of past Julys at the bottom. It’s always fun to see what patterns emerge. 

Alone in the Hollow Garden ~ Aeon of Set 𓃩

This is a 12+ minute long dark ambient track dedicated to the Egyptian God of Storms, Deserts and Chaos, Set. It’s mostly instrumental, but it does contain a prayer to Set, even calling Him by His Egyptian name, Sutekh. I came across it not long after it came out in December 2021, an odd upload from the YouTube channel Ghostshadow Shadowghost, outside of their usual genre. But it stayed around on my playlist of meditation music until I rediscovered it during my ongoing Egyptian mythology binge, and developed an appreciation for it. It even uses a duduk, a native Armenian instrument, although the musician behind Alone in the Hollow Garden is from Bucharest, Romania. So that gets bonus points from me. And the album cover is very aesthetically pleasing. 

I made it the first song on my meditation playlist for Set, 𓃩Dua Sutekh 𓃩. I want to do one for all my favorite deities eventually. It’s my newest ongoing mix project after having finished the Wizard of Oz one. Those are hieroglyphs of little Sha animals, the possibly-mythical, possibly-extinct creature that Set has the head of. I found that on Wikipedia and I love using Shas instead of punctuation now 𓃩 Okay maybe not. You know, Set wasn’t always considered a bad guy in Egyptian mythology, despite what you might have heard. The myth about him killing Osiris came about later on in Egyptian history. He also helped the Sun God Ra navigate the underworld every night and defeated the Chaos Serpent. He saves the world every night from a malevolent eldritch abomination, and yet everyone hates the poor guy. 

This is from the album Desert of Set, which includes two other, even longer tracks dedicated to Set.

https://aloneinthehollowgarden.bandcamp.com/album/desert-of-set

Slow Danse with the Dead ~ Dark Ritual 

The first official music video from Slow Danse with the Dead is finally out, done to the title track from their newest album. I’ve already been listening to this song for a few months, but a good music video always renews my interest in a song. Now is an exciting time for the band, as they are an official band now and not a solo project, and they’re starting to play local live shows. Nothing in my neck of the woods yet, but if it does happen I will be there. 

Here’s their latest album which this song is from, also called Dark Ritual.

https://slowdansewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/dark-ritual

Pretty Addicted ~ Am I Sick?

As promised, Pretty Addicted has been releasing a music video a month since January. Their upcoming  album, due out in October, is full of deeply personal songs. I’ve covered the song “Heather” before, which at least to me is the most relatable of the tracks that I have heard so far. This song is another great track, about having hypochondria. Too many people treat that condition like some kind of joke, but it’s definitely no joke to those who suffer from it, who might even know on an intellectual level that there’s nothing wrong with them, but they still can’t shake the feeling that they’re sick, or even terminally ill. 

You can find the track here, buying it helps finance the new album.

https://prettyaddicted.bandcamp.com/track/am-i-sick

THAL ~ Bei Mir

This sing has a groove to it. Very dancey. All I know about this band is that they’re from South Germany, I was only able to find their Soundcloud page through the description on this video. Soundcloud is like a foreign country to me, I’ve never really used it. So if anyone has any additional leads I’d be grateful. They do have their albums up on YouTube, but all I found on Bandcamp was a stoner rock band with the same name from Ohio. Perhaps we’ll be seeing a repeat of the Covenant vs The Kovenant feud soon?  

https://soundcloud.com/user-689628599

Lost Loved Ones ~ The Dark

Here’s my retro pick this month. From their 1984 EP of the same name, “The Dark”, the UK post-punk band Lost Loved Ones. This song is infectious. My favorite part is that little yodel where his voice goes up, “Iiiii, would die for yooooOOOUU!” You’ll know it when you hear it. This is one of those songs you have to sing along to, and it’s okay if you suck at singing, it will still be fun. I don’t know why it isn’t more famous of a song. The best songs from the 80s are the ones that never ended up on MTV, I swear. And the fewer albums a band had the better the band was. The truly great ones just released a demo tape and disappeared. And I’m always uncovering stuff I haven’t heard yet. 

As with a lot of older bands, I don’t think their stuff is on Bandcamp. 

Грань ~ Кассета

It’s been a good while since I latched onto some Russian post-punk. And in the middle of summer too. I always found that Russian post-punk just feels more right when you listen to it in the winter. You can listen in the summer, but you can’t truly feel the song. It has to be cold outside to truly appreciate it. But, this particular song had such a beautiful gloom to it I could enjoy it even when it’s humid and miserable outside here in Florida. This band is called Gran, or Edge according to Google Translate, from Chelyabinsk, Russia. And I didn’t know that the song title was going to translate to “Cassette”, but I had a feeling it might. One of my favorite things, of course.  I’ve been trying to learn to at least be able to sound out the Cyrillic alphabet even if I don’t understand much Russian. Learning Russian by listening to Molchat Doma, about as effective as learning German by listening to Rammstein, I guess.

And this was another of those cases where I was able to find the band on Bandcamp, but not this song in particular. They have a bunch of albums up on there though. 

https://granpostpunk.bandcamp.com/music

FEVR ~ I Think I’ve Fallen For You

A catchy love song rarely graces my blog, but here one is. At least it’s goth. I first got into the Los Angeles, California band FEVR late last year when I heard the song “I Can’t Do it No More”, one of those songs where the lyrics are much sadder than the upbeat music suggests. And I think I’ve fallen for FEVR. 

This is off their brand new album Fate, which came out on July 6. It’s out in cassette too! I need to get me a copy. 

https://fevr.bandcamp.com/album/fate

TOP SONGS OF JUly THROUGH THE YEARS

20 Years Ago ~ July 2003

I got out to the record store a lot that summer, always coming back with new CDs of bands I already knew I liked, and bands I was taking a risk on because they had cool album cover art. Kotipelto was one of the latter. Their album Waiting for the Dawn was ancient Egypt themed, and had this Egyptian guy standing in this colorful temple. See, even back then I was into ancient Egypt. I hadn’t quite heard of the band Stratovarius just yet, who Timo Kotipelto is the lead singer of, this being a solo album. The song “Chosen by Ra” is about the reign of Ramses the Great. Pretty nerdy thing to sing about. You’ll never hear that Post Malone guy singing about ancient history. “Dawn of Eternity” by Cradle of Filth is one of those songs with a badass epic opening. I can still rock out to that song today when I’m in the mood. And “Acid Theater” is back, it stuck around for two months in a row.

1. Cradle of Filth ~ Dawn of Eternity

2. Kotipelto ~ Chosen by Ra

3. The Kovenant- Acid Theater

15 Years Ago ~ July 2008

I was just starting to get into dark electro more. I had first gotten into Das Ich back in 2005, but I hadn’t really sought similar sounding bands until around this time. Mindless Faith is a great band that I would say are the same genre as Das Ich although the vocal style is very different. I found them through buying their CD at the record store as well, which was already the old fashioned way of doing things in 2008. And “Destillat”, still one if the best Das Ich songs. But I am always annoyed by how everyone loves the VNV Nation remix better than the original, and it gets played at all the clubs. I like the original, specifically the version with female backing vocals. There’s also a version without that and it’s kinda “meh”, but I still like that better than the VNV Nation version. And then there’s Hanzel und Gretyl. There was a time I really liked that band, although now I see them as a bit problematic. They try to get away with things by saying they’re a parody of German stereotypes, not sure if I buy it.

1. Mindless Faith ~ So Much for Salvation 

2. Das Ich ~ Destillat 

3. Hanzel und Gretyl ~ Kaiserreich

10 Years Ago ~ July 2013

This was the month after I went to that Ayria concert with my fiancé and I was still enjoying the CDs I bought there. One was of course Ayria’s newest album at the time Plastic Makes Perfect, and another was a freebie that was given out to everyone at the concert by one of the local opening bands, The Break Up. I liked a few of the songs on it. I think their band name has since sadly become a self-fulfilling prophecy, last I checked. And I was still into Zombie Girl at the time too. Yay. 

1. Ayria ~ Friends and Enemies

2. The Break Up ~ Who’s Crying Now? 

3. Zombie Girl - Creepy Crawler

5 Years Ago ~ July 2018

While yes I was miserable at the call center job during this time, this was the month I got to see Das Ich in concert in Tampa, Florida. And that remains to be one of my favorite concerts of all time. And it’s interesting to see Das Ich as a running thread through this look back at the Julys of my past. Maybe five years from now I’ll have another Das Ich craze, seems to happen every ten years. Too bad I hadn’t heard of them yet in 1998. Crazy to think that I could have. Anyway, Buzz Kull is a great band too, still like a lot of their stuff. Although it’s been a while since they came out with a new album. And then yes I was still working my way through The Cure’s early music at this time too. When I had time and wasn’t chained to a desk in a cubicle being harassed over the phone. 

1. Das Ich ~ Von der Armut

2. Buzz Kull ~ Dreams

3. The Cure ~ 100 Years

An Introduction to Armeno-Kemetic Neopagan Pantheism (AKNP) ~ Part 1

 

Above is my religious symbol; an Egyptian ankh, symbol of eternal life, and an Armenian symbol of eternity within it. Totally going to get a tattoo of this one day. 

Prepare to read a crazed religious manifesto. I call my belief system Armeno-Kemetic Neopagan Pantheism (referred to from here on out as AKNP), as it mainly incorporates deities from the ancient Armenian and Egyptian pantheons (Kemet is what the ancient Egyptians called their country). It is “soft” polytheism, meaning that I see the Gods as personifications of natural forces or concepts, or psychological archetypes that reside deep in the collective subconscious of humanity, rather than literal beings that physically exist somewhere. But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to them, or seek solace from them. I have been teetering between polytheism and pantheism for quite some time now. They don’t necessarily contradict one another, but I’ve still leaned closer to one than the other at various points of my life. 

Panpsychism, Gods and Science

If I had been asked late last year what my thoughts were on God, I would say that endless eternal oblivion is the ultimate God that will consume the entire universe one day and erase any evidence that anything ever existed, at the Heat Death of the Universe, trillions of years from now. I call it the Abyss, as described by Nietzsche, and it is higher and stronger than any God. The Abyss, as far as us mortals are concerned who aren’t going to be around for the end of the universe, is our deaths. It’s the end. While undeniably true from a certain point of view that everything in the universe is going to be undone eventually, I have other points of view too. That’s not the only God, nor does it need to be the only God to focus on. Life exists too. There’s more to a story than just how it ends. I’ve managed to put the Abyss on the back burner for now, not to ignore it or pretend it doesn’t exist but to compartmentalize it; just like death itself, it’s always going to be there looming in the background, but I can’t do anything about it. I live with it. It is important to acknowledge it, but dwelling on it is unproductive. 

I also believe the stars are the closest thing to Gods that physically exist (and there are other ways to exist than just physically), and have a consciousness of their own which we are all part of. This is called panpsychism, or stellar consciousness. Our souls come from the Sun, or occasionally other stars, ancient stars that went supernova billions of years ago for example. After death, our souls either reincarnate after a period of rest, or return to the Sun, the Source. Something like nirvana in Buddhism. Our lives are almost like simulations that our souls undergo, for the purpose of growth and learning. It is how the universe knows itself. We are basically the Universe observing itself. We learn hard lessons, and suffer terribly, in an unjust and indifferent world. I sometimes wonder why my soul wants to be on this planet. Surely there are easier planets to live on somewhere in the universe. There have been times when, in a deep meditation, I almost felt like I had the answer, like my soul was almost awakening from the simulation, but something didn’t want me to unlock the truth and I was pushed back into this dream. I still feel like I’m more hyper-aware of reality than I’m supposed to be. Certainly more than I used to be. 

There’s one thing I want, and that’s the truth, no matter how unpleasant it might be. Many people who turn to religion are actually fleeing the truth. No one wants to think they’ll cease to exist after they die and everything they ever did was meaningless. So, many people believe any outlandish fairy tale they’re told, and if a lot of other people say they believe it too, that’s enough comfort for them. They’ll become so afraid of thinking deep thoughts about existence and so desperate for their fairy tale to be true that they will even kill anyone who says differently. I will never be one of those. I’m a pantheist, so I believe that God is in all things, it is the consciousness of the universe, and that our souls are indestructible energy and we reincarnate. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I will go into nonexistence peacefully. Because I don’t take my pagan religion literally like Abrahamic monotheists do. They’re fables to draw lessons from, symbolic interpretations of reality, not literal history. 

Anyway, I consider pantheism/panpsychism compatible with current understandings of astronomy, quantum physics and the like. I agree with atheists like 99% of the time. I just don’t agree with materialistic thought. I think that the concept of dark matter is science desperately trying to keep materialism from being disproved. Panpsychism holds that the universe and everything in it has some kind of consciousness. In science, it can also explain why stars oribit their galaxies at a faster rate than should be possible with gravity alone; which was what prompted scientists to come up with dark matter to explain it. I think that the stars are moving of their own volition because they are alive, and yes there are some scientists who take it seriously as a hypothesis, although an untestable one. I think that might be true at least with living things, planets, moons, stars and galaxies. Anything that is born, grows, ages and dies, which all of these things do. Perhaps mountains count as well, and crystals. I know what I felt when I gazed upon Mt. Ararat. That mountain is like a God watching over the landscape. Anyway, I view panpsychism as a feature of pantheism. 

By the way, I believe in evolution and all that. No problem with monkeys in my ancestry, I accept it.  But I believe in the mystifying aspects of evolution. There’s a kind of inherent intelligence to it when you look at the animal kingdom and see how specialized each species is, almost as if it’s being guided by some higher being. It’s a kind of magic. Heka, to the Egyptians. Our species gaining higher consciousness and self-awareness may have been some kind of cosmic fluke. Only happens every few million years somewhere in the galaxy. But it is supposed to happen, that’s the end goal of life. Sometimes it takes a few billion years to finally get there, it has to be in a very stable environment, and then you’re lucky if the species doesn’t nuke itself, like humanity is probably going to soon.

So, what exactly are Gods, in my practice? Let’s go back to the Sun, for example. As far as we’re concerned here on Earth, the Sun is God, even if it is a mediocre star compared to others. The rest of the universe could disappear and as long as the Sun still existed we would probably be fine (until it goes Red Giant. Then we would be in trouble.) Anyway, the Sun was seen by the ancient Egyptians as Ra, the falcon-headed deity who created all of the other Gods asexually. Every polytheistic religion has a Sun God. The Armenians and the Peruvians both called themselves Children of the Sun, despite being separated by oceans, continents and centuries. Deep down we all know it’s true. The Christian God is really just a Sun God in disguise. But Ra was Egypt’s interpretation of the Sun. Gods are a bit like mascots, in a sense. Mickey Mouse doesn’t physically exist, but Disney is a real entity. 

The truth is like a mountain. What you see as the shape of the mountain depends on what direction you view it from. Take a mountain with twin peaks, one higher than the other, like Mt. Ararat, or Mt. Diablo, in California where I grew up. One might view it from one direction, and say the smaller peak is on the left side. Someone from the opposite direction sees the smaller peak on the right side. Someone from yet another direction might see the larger peak from the side and be unaware of a smaller peak hidden behind it. They’re all correct from their standpoint. But you can be correct and still not see the whole picture. This is my view on polytheism. Each culture had their own interpretations of the world, of the truth. I latch onto these symbols sometimes, those of Gods. There are more ways to exist than just physically, as I mentioned. Gods represent things and concepts that are real: the Sun, death, love, motherhood, etc. They are personifications and interpretations of those things. Personifications that make for good back and forth conversations in your brain. 

My Religious History

I grew up Christian, but my immediate family was never super devout. Plenty of religious extremists in my extended family, but luckily I wasn’t indoctrinated like that. I was christened under the Armenian Apostolic Church as an infant, obviously without being given much say in it. Then I was talked into getting baptized at a Baptist church when I was about 11 years old. Also too young to truly consent to it. As a teen I started wishing my enemies would burn in Hell, and the religion didn’t do anything positive for me, it just fed into my hatred and spite, like it does for a lot of people. I fell in with a circle of friends who were Wiccan, more or less, and while they made no effort to convert me I started to see how different religions worked. How they can be positive. Not to mention the more I started to learn about Christianity, the less I liked it. A history of colonialism and cultural genocide around the world. In Egypt, they burned down the Library of Alexandria and destroyed many ancient temples. Armenia in particular has been trapped in an abusive relationship with Christianity since 301 AD. They destroyed all the ancient records, burned and ransacked the pagan temples, and made it so much easier for the Azeris to say we aren’t ancient centuries later. Armenia could have had monuments and ancient wisdom as great as Greece and Egypt, but they are lost. And Jesus didn’t lift a finger to help Armenia in 1915, during the most infamous stage of the Armenian genocide (which is an ongoing process that began around 1000 AD and continues to the present, but that’s another topic). The world simply does not work the way Christianity says it does, and yet people still blindly follow it out of fear. Islam is just as bad if not worse. 

I loved Egypt as a kid, I always felt connected to it somehow. Particularly the God Anpu/Anubis. I’m pretty sure I’ve had some past lives in ancient Egypt. Egypt came back to me a second time in my early 20s, which was when I converted away from Christianity and started to instead follow the Egyptian Gods and Wicca. Wicca can be eclectic, meaning you can incorporate any deity from any religion and have them as stand-ins for the Horned God and the Moon Goddess. But I do feel like it still has a naïve idea of how karma works. People get away with horrific, gruesome acts all the time. I don’t want to wait until they reincarnate for them to get their comeuppance! The way I see it, there is no inherent justice in the universe. Justice is a man-made concept, just like good and evil. No higher being or force is just going to carry out justice for you. Overall though, Wicca gives a good starting point, it can even provide the backbone to your own unique pagan practices. Just take what you feel is true and leave the rest. Later I started learning more about the Armenian Gods, of which very little is written sadly, and I gravitated more towards them so that I could follow the religion of my ancestors, leaving both Egypt and Wicca behind. But I did learn a lot with the Armenian Gods, and I got that direct ancestral attachment I couldn’t get with the Egyptian pantheon.

Then in my 30s, I went through that existential nihilism period, and while I maintained a passing interest in it, I dropped out of paganism for a number of years, and no longer felt very spiritual. A lot of this coincided with the 2020 Artsakh War and its disastrous results, and just 2020 in general, which was a depressing year for everyone. But it was also the call center jobs I had in the preceding two years that sucked the life out of me and killed my optimism. I might just be finally starting to move on from this, if this renewed interest sticks around. I strangely don’t feel like I control how long I stay interested in things. But I will try. We’ll see how my Seasonal Affective Disorder goes this year. 

Thanks to my webcomic, which involves Egyptian Gods, a couple months ago something rekindled in me after years of dormancy. A renewed interest in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. In particular, the God Set, Sutekh in ancient Egyptian, and Thoth, Djehuty in ancient Egyptian, called to me. I feel happier when I’m learning new things and being a nerd, and I’ve been learning all sorts about the Egyptian pantheon that I never knew before. It’s a welcome escape. 

Maybe once you fully accept existential nihilism as the truth there’s not much further you can go with it, unless you become an absurdist, and just say “screw it, nothing makes sense or has any meaning, the universe is absurd, we’ll never fully understand it, I’m just going to do what I want and live life in spite of its meaninglessness”. Maybe this is what me becoming an absurdist looks like. Returning to paganism. No one can really say what’s real, we only have the minimum senses it takes to survive in the world. There are other layers of reality which we are unaware of and unable to interact with, quantum science proves this. Then again, maybe paganism is all a comforting delusion. Maybe the “Gods” are just voices in my head. Imaginary friends. But if there really is no inherent meaning of life, why not? It’s not hurting anyone. I’m not out to convert people. I’m not going back to the dogmatic bigotry of Christianity either. That’s not what AKNP is about. I’m not going to shove my head in the sand that deeply. Or at all, hopefully. 

I am going to wrap this blog entry up, I have a LOT more to talk about, but this blog is going to be a mile long if I don’t stop somewhere. Join me next time when I discuss the pantheons and Gods I follow and why I’m drawn to them, and what holidays I observe in my practice. 

Top 7 Songs of the Month ~ June 2023 ~ Revenge of Nephthys, Devoted Sinners, This Cold Night

 I’m finally back with some new music, been pretty busy with my webcomic and some other projects but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to new music, I just haven’t written about it yet. I’ve been very strapped for time, so I might not write a whole lot about every song but I’ll at least provide the links where you can check them out when possible. So, here are my favorite songs of the past 30 days. Most of it is new, but I’ve been listening to some older stuff too that’s new to me. I also did the This Month in History section, tracking my June musical tastes over the past twenty years. 

Revenge of Nephthys ~ No Way Out

I’ve been on an Egyptian mythology kick lately, and as I was reading about the Desert and Chaos God Set and his wife the Dark Goddess Nephthys, I remembered this band name “Revenge of Nephthys” in the back of my mind somewhere. Previously I had heard their song “Senseless”, but now I wanted to do a deep dive into their discography. Perhaps it was Nephthys Herself that put this idea in my mind. During my listens, the song “No Way Out” became my favorite. None of their music seems to be directly about ancient Egypt, but this song does have a vaguely Egyptian sound, at least in my opinion. 

Revenge of Nephthys was a German deathrock band from the town of Braunschweig, active from the early-to-mid 90s, only releasing two albums and some demo tapes before disappearing like so many other obscure goth bands before them. As far as I can tell, by the 90s there weren’t very many bands continuing the post-punk/deathrock sound throughout most parts of the world (except Mexico apparently), so it’s always cool to find one. 

Devoted Sinners ~ Of Dreaming

My friends Devoted Sinners have done it again. Their new album Nothing Lasts Forever came out last month, and what struck me most was this song. There have been times in my life where I’d rather have been asleep than awake, which is what this song is about. Being in a blissful place and not wanting to rejoin the living. The song has an ethereal sound that puts you in that zone, for a few minutes at least. Then it ends and you have to wake up. 

https://devotedsinners.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-lasts-forever

Joao ~ Girls in my Room

This song is just one of those songs that take you on an adventure. I have never focused on the lyrics while listening to this because the music is so captivating. Especially when the singer does this weird echo effect with his voice like “Hooo-ooo-oo-oo Haaa-aaa-aa-aa”. I don’t know why I like it so much but it sounds so epic for some reason. 

Joao, although stationed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is led by Peruvian artist Luis Mauricio Málaga Fuenzalida, so it definitely has that same kind of sound that’s prevalent in post-punk coming out of Central and South America right now, a subgenre that really deserves more attention. I expected the singer’s first name to be Joao, but I was wrong. 

https://joaobandperu.bandcamp.com/album/sex-driven-isolation

This Cold Night ~ Circuits (R.23 Version)

It’s this song again, neat! “I’m not just an old pile of circuits”. A song about a robot yearning to be human, metaphorically or literally depending on your interpretation. I love the original song, this remix does it justice. This is going to be on an upcoming album, Retrospective XXIII, which is apparently also coming out on DVD with camcorder footage of a concert. I wonder why more albums didn’t come out on DVD. Or VHS before that, for that matter. Blank DVDs are even longer than blank cassettes, opening up the possibility for longer mixes. I have a DVD player rigged up to my stereo receiver to act as a CD player, so it would be really cool to listen to this new album on it. The singer explains more on the Bandcamp page below for this two song release.

https://thiscoldnight.bandcamp.com/album/pick-up-a-phone

Slow Danse with the Dead ~ Dream Stalker

I’m still really loving Slow Danse with the Dead’s new sound. One of my favorite still-active bands, I try to follow them pretty closely (not to the point of it being weird of course). This is another remake from their newest album Dark Ritual, which I talked about last month too. The original version of this track kind of slipped by me as I focused on other songs, but the new version really caught my attention and caused me to appreciate the song a lot more. 

https://slowdansewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/dark-ritual

Aux Animaux ~ Lost Souls

I first heard this song on Obscura Undead’s All Goth Considered show, where artists are interviewed about their song before it’s played, and I liked it. The song is about the evils of animal experimentation, as the lyrics pertain to being trapped in a cage for weeks, months and years. Another song it reminds me of is Pretty Addicted’s “Blue Cage” about whale captivity. Uh oh, I’m getting ideas for an animal activist mixtape. Anyway, this is a really good song, I’m going to be keeping an eye on this band. 

https://auxanimaux.bandcamp.com/track/lost-souls

Guerra Fría ~ El Miedo en tus Ojos

 My favorite band from Guatemala. This song translates to “The Fear in your Eyes”. I ran the lyrics through Google Translate (because I took German instead of Spanish in High School), it’s a song about admiring someone but not having the courage to say anything to them, and yet the object of the person’s affection has fear in their eyes. 

This song released on May 9th, and Guerra Fría has had another release since then, just yesterday in fact. I still need to listen to the new album. 

https://guerrafriamusic.bandcamp.com/track/el-miedo-en-tus-ojos

TOP SONGS OF June THROUGH THE YEARS

20 Years Ago ~ June 2003

“Tanz in der Schatten” always makes me think of my grandmother because it was the last song I showed her before she died in late May 2003. She was Austrian and I thought she would appreciate a song in German. Not sure what she thought about the metal aspects. I discovered Dimmu Borgir on a compilation CD from Nuclear Blast Records, which had this song about exterminating humanity. And The Kovenant’s final album SETI was still fresh in my mind at this time.

1. Theatre of Tragedy - Tanz in der Schatten

2. Dimmu Borgir - Puritania

3. The Kovenant- Acid Theater

15 Years Ago ~ June 2008

Still melancholic and dreary at this time, still healing after a breakup. College was out for summer and I was back home, although I mainly spent the summer holed up in my bedroom. I was still listening to 1930s music too, hence Cab Calloway. 

1. E Nomine - Wolfen - Das Tier in Mir

2. Gothic Archies - Dreary, Dreary

3. Cab Calloway - San Francisco Fan

10 Years Ago ~ June 2013

These two bands were my hyper focus throughout 2013. It’s hard to believe this was ten years ago already. My biggest memory from this month was going to an Ayria concert with my then-girlfriend now-wife. There will probably be some Ayria on here next month. 

1. Light Asylum - At Will

2. Zombie Girl - Bleeder

3. Zombie Girl - Creepy Crawler

5 Years Ago ~ June 2018

These were songs that helped me cope with the crappy call center job I had at the time. Boy Harsher was making waves at the time and being played at all the goth clubs. I lived closer to Tampa, Florida back then and could therefore frequent The Castle night club. “Pain” quickly became the “DJ’s bathroom break” song at the club and at similar goth nights. “Killing Time” is a really catchy track that I still like despite kind of going off synthwave. 

1. Crying Vessel - Killing Time

2. White Ring - IXC 999

3. Boy Harsher - Pain

Top 5 Songs of the Month ~ May 2023 ~ Slow Danse with the Dead, The Blood Pact, Haunt Me

Another busy month, this blog is a bit later than it ought to have been. Should I just start doing these in the middle of the Gregorian calendar month? Maybe. I dunno. These are as of May 8th, the day this blog should have come out, so any song that came out after then has a chance to be on next month’s list. Also, I once again went down memory lane and provided my top 3 songs of May from 20, 15, 10 and 5 years ago. This will take you through many different eras of my life, as I went from metal to dark electro/EBM to post-punk and deathrock.

Anyway, here’s what Ive been listening to.

Slow Danse with the Dead ~ If One Coffin Lid Shuts Another Shall Open

Slow Danse with the Dead is back, now as a three-piece band rather than a solo project. And if the new album Dark Ritual is indicative of their new direction, I am very excited. The first half of the album is rerecorded tracks such as this one, from the earliest days of the band. I chose this song because I’ve always liked the message. The body may die but the soul is eternal. There is no end. But I could just as easily have picked any track off the album as a fave. 

https://slowdansewiththedead.bandcamp.com/album/dark-ritual

The Blood Pact ~ Secrets

I couldn’t find the song on its own, so here’s the full album. It’s the second song after the spooky intro.

The Blood Pact is an 80s style deathrock band out of the US state of Virginia. This whole album is great from start to finish, and is another of those rare concept albums in the age of streaming. The album Death of the Vampire is packed with enough spooky tracks to satisfy any vampiric goth. I actually first came across this album on the video above, and after a few listens I decided to get it on Bandcamp. It’s not The Blood Pact’s first album either, they’ve had a handful of releases since debuting last year.

https://thebloodpact1.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-the-vampire

Type O Negative ~ Black Sabbath

Hot damn, how did I miss this song for so long? I never heard this because it was originally only released on the European single for “My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend”. It’s a cover of a song by of course Black Sabbath, but rewritten in order to give equal focus to Satan, apparently. It’s so badass though. I love it when I uncover some rare track from a band I thought I heard everything from. If you haven’t heard it, you should. It’s delightfully sinister sounding.

Haunt Me ~ All Things Turn Grey

Haunt Me is a band out of Austin, Texas that I’ve been following and enjoying for a while now. This is another one of those “We’re all going to die” songs I keep ending up liking. Other such songs include Type O Negative’s “Everything Dies”, Mortiis’ “Everyone Leaves”, Tears of Ozymandias’ “683280 Hours”, and Devoted Sinners “Everything I’ve Ever Loved is Dead”. Maybe one day I can make a very happy little mixtape of just death songs. Anyway, this one has a nice beat to it at least. I actually feel like it’s reassuring somehow. Yeah my back is ruined for life and my hair’s starting to get just a little thinner, but it happens to everyone. At age 37 I think I’ve still fared better than a lot of people. I still look like I could be in my 20s, despite my internal physical issues. Some people have lost all their hair and teeth by that age. Anyway, memento mori. 

You can find the song here:

https://hauntmeofficial.bandcamp.com/track/all-things-turn-grey

Rubbertankboy ~ Pure as Water

Okay, it’s time to give my thoughts on AI in music. Now the lyrics in this song were generated by AI using Nirvana’s songs, and the song’s music cobbled together by the artist, who did their best to sound like Kurt Cobain. I don’t actually think it does sound like Nirvana, maybe more like another 90s Nirvana-esque band like Local H, but I ended up just liking it as a song. It got stuck in my head. The lyrics “You’re as pure as water and I’m rotting away, I got my reasons. She’s the perfect daughter and I’m a mistake, I got my reasons” resonated with me somehow. 

As for AI music itself, I think it’s okay if you’re just messing around with it for fun, particularly if it’s a deceased singer and the band is never getting back together again anyway. I can see it becoming a problem when you start using it with still-active bands. And it threatens to make pop music even more soulless than it already was if they make completely artificial music with it. I think if you’re going to use it at all this is the ideal way to do it, using a real human to sing it at least, and not for a profit. It comes off more like a tribute than a ripoff this way. I don’t think AI has reached the point where generating a voice makes it sound truly good, yet. At worst you get something like this.

I have different feelings about AI art though. That’s being used by capitalists to force the very few artists who can do it for a living back into wage slavery. If it gets even better this might happen with music too, sadly. 

TOP SONGS OF May THROUGH THE YEARS

20 Years Ago ~ May 2003

My metal phase was ongoing, and The Kovenant mania had still not run its course for me at this time. Their album SETI came out in April 2003, and ended up being the final album from The Kovenant, despite teases from the band that there was another one in the works, or perhaps even finished but never released, titled Aria Galactica. I’m still waiting after all these years! I was also enjoying Cradle of Filth’s Midian album, which I still think is one of their best. Also, I learned through a mix CD a friend had made me of rare Rammstein songs that Rammstein had covered a Kraftwerk song, to my amazement at the time. Too bad it was “Das Modell” though. I think “Sex Object” would have been more up their alley. I wonder if I still have that CD buried somewhere in one of my huge CD binders I have stashed away.

1. The Kovenant ~ Cybertrash

2. Cradle of Filth ~ Tortured Soul Asylum 

3. Rammstein ~ Das Modell

15 Years Ago ~ May 2008

Oh woe was me. I talk about this way more often than I should on this blog, I’ve been over it now for years I swear. It’s not something that keeps me up at night. But this was what was happening with my failed first relationship. On my 22nd birthday, April 21, I learned through a friend that my then-girlfriend was planning on breaking up with me. It shattered me. E Nomine carried me through my sorrows at the time. They were kind of a passing phase I went though, not helped by the revelation that they’re a Christian band. I can’t deny they have a few good songs though. I also gravitated toward “Stitches” by Orgy, and the song served as the title track for a mixtape full of breakup songs I put together as a coping mechanism. 

1. E Nomine ~ Mitternacht

2. Orgy ~ Stitches

3. E Nomine ~ Das Böse

10 Years Ago ~ May 2013

Light Asylum’s IPC topped the charts for the second month in a row, because I could just not get this song out of my head. My then-girlfriend now-wife introduced me to the song “Runnin’ Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, giving me hipster cred over people who didn’t hear it until it was used in Stranger Things. I liked the Placebo cover because it was a bit gothier, but I think the original is overall the best. Ayria’s new album Plastic Makes Perfect was coming out soon too, and it’s still one of my favorites.

1. Light Asylum ~ IPC

2. Placebo ~ Runnin’ Up That Hill

3. Ayria ~ Plastic Makes Perfect

5 Years Ago ~ May 2018

For some reason it took me until 2018 to give The Cure’s early albums a listen. “Cold” is still my favorite song by The Cure. At this time I was starting my grueling call center job with Macy’s, and “Cold” really encapsulated how I felt at the time. Like my heart had to be frozen as ice to be able to handle being yelled at all day. I discovered “See You” by Depeche Mode at this time too. An underrated track from early in the band’s career, from 1982. I wasn’t quite done with my synthwave phase either, hence Gunship. I mostly got tired of the genre by 2019 (because 95% of the songs sound the same or are just instrumentals, and it ceased to be dark and dreary enough for me as my tastes turned toward post-punk and goth rock), although I might still come across a song I like every now and then.

1. The Cure ~ Cold

2. Depeche Mode ~ See You

3. Gunship ~ The Hegemon

Travelogue ~ Disneyworld, and A Brief History of my trips to Disney parks

I’m quite over Disney. Their best movies are usually  the ones that bombed at the box office. Probably the last one I liked at all was Lilo and Stitch, from over 20 years ago. But their movies for the last 10+ years are just regurgitations of older, better movies. So why would I go to Disneyworld? Well, my in-laws went on a vacation to England in April, and came back with my wife’s cousin Thomas who really wanted to see Disneyworld because it’s his first time in America. My mother-in-law also wanted my four year old son Jareth to go, and I needed to be there to help supervise him, as caring for him is a two person job (he’s autistic and has ADHD, and is nonverbal, also prone to running off suddenly). Tickets have ballooned to astronomical prices (for all four of us it cost $500, yikes), I would otherwise be way too poor to afford it, but my mother-in-law paid for us, so I don’t want to seem ungrateful, of course. But I plan on being honest about my thoughts during the trip. If nothing else at least it gave me something to write about, for which I’m grateful. 

A Brief History of my trips to Disney parks

1991

This was to Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. I was five years old so I barely remember anything. But this was the only time I ever went during my childhood, which I somewhat resented later. But now I don’t care. All I remember is that a big part of the park was closed because they were building Toontown, and the castle being way smaller than I expected it to be. Even back then my brain focused on the negatives! Of note though is that we stayed with my paternal grandparents during this trip, and this is the only memory I have of meeting my grandfather Suren. Specifically I remember my grandmother Olga telling me to play chess with my grandfather, but I didn’t know how to play. He was a tall, mountain of a man in my eyes, a bit intimidating. A lot of people thought so too, so I’ve heard. Anyway, these memories are a lot more valuable to me than Disneyland. 

2007

I remember this trip a lot better. It was Disneyland again, and I went in December so everything was Christmas themed. I was 21, and went with my then-girlfriend and some other friends. I paid my way with some money I won at a casino, actually. Another trip I had gone on with my parents months prior. Overall I enjoyed myself, at least at the time. The memory is tainted by how badly that relationship with said girlfriend ended, however. Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion were my favorite rides. 

2015

I had just moved to Florida, and it was a couple months before my big trip to Armenia. I went to Disneyworld with my future wife. Annnd it wasn’t that great (don’t tell my mother-in-law). Half the time was spent waiting in lines. We waited almost an hour to get on this one roller coaster, and when we got to the end of the line, the ride was shut down. I was so pissed. We went to the Magic Kingdom area, which I didn’t realize was very kid-oriented. I didn’t have a kid yet. So a lot of the rides were not that fun for adults. Rides that had equivalents in Disneyland such as Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion seemed shorter and less fun than their original counterparts. I guess I had high expectations for Disneyworld, having sat through enough ads for it in my lifetime. I felt lied to. Another adulthood disillusionment.

The 2023 Trip

So, with the 2015 trip still fresh in my mind, we left for Orlando. The trip would be different this time now that we had a kid. Another difference is that since 2015 I’ve developed chronic back and tailbone pain, and walking or standing for too long is excruciating. I was also worried about getting hurt on a ride. This along with my anti-capitalist ideology, distaste for modern Disney, and poor experience in 2015 were why I didn’t really want to go, but alas, I had to be a responsible parent. A few days prior we got disability passes so that our spot in line would be saved and I could go sit down somewhere. It works essentially like a “Lightning Pass” that you usually pay extra for, except you do have to abide by the wait time. So if the wait time is 45 minutes, you can walk around or sit and rest elsewhere until the time comes. We needed it even more for my son’s sake, as he gets very impatient while waiting and likely would not tolerate standing in line for more than 15 minutes. The rules were only one person in a group could get the disability pass, which I guess makes sense, we weren’t planning on splitting up. But it did get us into trouble at Haunted Mansion, as I’ll explain. 

I took a bunch of painkillers in preparation for the trip, and we left. We got stuck in traffic on the way there, which is common on any given day on Highway 4, the most dangerous highway in the US. There was more than one crash on the side of the road. I got to expose our guest from England to Slow Danse with the Dead, which I’m not sure he was into, before putting on the more crowd-pleasing Alice in Chains Unplugged album. So few people share my unique musical tastes, alas. 

So we get there, and the entrance is like going through an airport. And don’t think going on a weekday will make things not crowded. There were thousands of people. I still had that old “what if we get Covid” fear left over from 2020. I suppose it wasn’t impossible. But what could I do? I saw maybe one person with a mask. The security guards frisked us and put us through a metal detector, and then we were sardined into a line for the ferry boat to get there. We just missed the ferry boat and had to wait in the hot, punishing sun for the next one. Maybe we should have taken the monorail. But we only had to wait like 15 minutes, making me feel like a whiner even though I didn’t vocally express my discomfort. Easy now, we only just got here, plenty of time for crotchety old complaining later. 

After we got off the ferry, there was a stupid sky-writing plane spelling out “Jesus loves you” in the sky, lowering my respect for Disney even further. They must have at least given permission for this. By the time they reached the end of the phrase the first part was illegible. Hey, if your deity is real, why did that happen? Reminds me of a quote which I will paraphrase; “If you leave the bible outside, it will be destroyed by the wind and the rain. My religion is the wind and the rain.” Anyway, it was kind of a nightmare getting in. We waited through three lines, the ferry line, the line to get into the park (Thomas wasn’t a member of our “group” apparently and that had to be rectified), and the line for the disability pass. So Disney thinks I’m disabled, maybe I’m not faking my pain and depression after all, you think? If only the government were as easy to convince.

So the day went as follows:

Entrance and Castle

We got my disability pass at the “City Hall”, in the main entrance area made up to look like a town from the 1890s. It meant I had to be on every ride for us all to get to benefit from it. We didn’t spend a lot of time in this area, which was mostly stores. But this was where I decided I couldn’t stand hearing Disney music all day and turned on my MP3 player.

The castle is like the Mecca of the Cult of Disney. It’s also classist symbolism. The worship of power, hierarchy and wealth. I will say it’s taller than the one at Disneyland, which I think even when I was 5 years old I was underwhelmed with.

Haunted Mansion

We brought my son Jareth on this ride. Poor kid was traumatized. I felt a bit guilty. I enjoyed it myself but he screamed the whole time. Thing is if we didn’t bring him then Deborah would have to not go on the ride, and not benefit from my disability pass, having to wait in line an hour or something. And we weren’t going to make Thomas watch Jareth and miss out on the ride. I mean I never found the ride scary myself, but then again I never went on it until I was 21 years old. And I kinda forgot about how scary it actually would be to a kid.

I also kept thinking about how there’s apparently a big problem with people bringing their loved ones ashes and spilling them on the ride somewhere. Anyway, I didn’t really get to enjoy it as much as I could have.

Merry Go Round

We went here basically as an apology to Jareth. He finally started to enjoy himself on this. I had to sit in such a way that I was putting my weight on my thigh and not my tailbone. It wasn’t comfortable. Those horses are rock hard.

PhilharMagic

This is more of a show that you watch in a theater with 3D glasses than a ride, full of computerized versions of famous Disney Acid Sequences. You could feel air jets blow at you and pick up smells that went with whatever scene was on. I wished I were high for this. Would have been quite amazing. Anyway, it was a bit cringey honestly, but I liked that I could sit down and it was air conditioned. I didn’t really like air being sprayed in my face though, reminded me of that machine you put your face against at the eye doctors that shoots air into your open eye.

Lunch

Seating areas are hard to come by. But we found a slightly shady spot along the path and sat on the curb to eat the sandwiches we bought at Publix that morning. I’m not spending $50 to buy a meal at Disneyworld. 

Tea Cups

It’s not truly a day at Disneyworld until the ride you’re standing in line for breaks down. Fortunately it wasn’t for long. But waiting in line for it twice did suck a bit.

Winnie The Pooh

I don’t care at all for Winnie the Pooh, other than Eyeore being relatable. But it was for Jareth. And at least I got to sit down and the air was cool. It’s almost like the Haunted Mansion for toddlers, that’s how I would describe the ride. 

Tea Cups

They were operational again after we got off the Winnie the Pooh ride. I got very dizzy. Jareth was happy though. 

Walking around in the Severe Heat While Waiting For Our Turn on The Mine Cart Ride

At least we weren’t standing in line, that would have been much worse. We used my pass to book the ride ahead of time, but it was a pretty long wait time. This was when my back pain really started to catch up with me. And it was very, very hot. By this time Jareth had fallen asleep, which was just as well because now we could go on the more adult rides. As adult as Magic Kingdom gets anyway. We probably should have waited until this point to do the Haunted Mansion, but it’s not like we knew he was going to fall asleep.  We took a walk through Tomorrowland (to be more accurate it should have either been underwater or a smoldering radioactive crater, rather than the empty promises capitalism made about the future in the 1950s), back around and through the castle, and eventually back to the ride itself. This killed enough time. But yeah, I was hurting.

The Snow White Mine Cart Ride

My favorite part of this was the part of the line that went into a mine tunnel, because it was dark and the air was cool. The ride itself was fine. Short, not anything spectacular, but the only proper roller coaster I would be on during this trip. This was the ride that I had waited in line for an hour only to have it break down during my 2015 trip, as I recall. At least I got on it this time. I was kind of afraid I would hurt my back on the ride, but luckily I didn’t. 

Walking Around Waiting for Pirates of the Caribbean 

I was still hurting, but we did find a table to sit at eventually. It was starting to get later and we were thinking of leaving soon. But it would have been a pity to leave without going on Pirates of the Caribbean. So we booked it ahead of time. The wait was 45 minutes or so. We traveled through Frontier Land. I got to see the former Splash Mountain being remodeled. The tears of racist conservatives were delicious when it was announced they were getting rid of the Song of the South references on the ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean 

The only Disney ride that ever had a decent spinoff movie. I won’t say that about the sequels, but I liked the first film. As I said before, it’s shorter than the Disneyland version, with only one dropping point. But it’s still fun. My MP3 player started playing some Cradle of Filth, and it paired with the ride quite nicely. And of course, it had cool air and somewhere to sit. The minimum requirement for a ride to be enjoyable to me. 

Leaving

Jareth woke up while I was on the ride; Deborah had stayed with him outside. We decided it had been a full day and we had been on pretty much the best rides. It was about 6pm at this point. We weren’t bothered about staying until the park closed and seeing the fireworks and electric parade really, I’ve been there done that. 

I may have been in pain, but I felt accomplished for having made it through the day. At least I got to see my son happy. I wonder how much he will remember about it, if anything. Anyway, I think I enjoyed myself a bit more than I did in 2015, maybe because my expectations were lower and more realistic, maybe because I didn’t have to stand in line for an hour each time (and have the ride break down), and maybe because I had Jareth with me.