It’s been a great week for me in many regards, but especially for food and music. It started on Monday when the lovely lethal Linda and I hit up The Meatball Shop for delicious sliders and ice cream sandwiches (heavenly) before heading over to Pianos to see our friends Mancie (delightful). A pleasant way to kick off the week.

Then on Wednesday I got to try out ABC Kitchen, which I had never been to despite its proximity to my place of employment. It’s a bit out of my normal lunch price range, but a birthday is the perfect excuse to spend a little more, and it was completely worth it. I tried the apple pear salad and ricotta ravioli. Both were great, but I think I’ll be dreaming of that salad for weeks to come. Mmm.

On Friday, my partner in crime and I headed to the east village to get delicious Ukranian foods at Veselka and see two of our friends perform in Accidental #5 at Danspace, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was a nice change of pace for us, since our outings usually revolve around concerts or gaming, and it was the perfect way to end the work week.

I’d been planning to head out to Jersey on Saturday evening to catch my favorite Protomen in Somerset, but the beginnings of a sore throat that appeared on Friday night and Saturday morning convinced me that perhaps it would be wiser to take a break and catch up on my sleep. I was sick for PAX last year, and while it didn’t keep me from having fun, I’d really prefer to be more or less healthy this time around. So I indulged in multiple multi-hour naps, and caught up on my Netflix instant queue, and prepared my apartment to receive its current houseguests instead.

The main event of Sunday, without question, was of course the Protomen show in Brooklyn at Glasslands Gallery, home of strange faux-taxidermy and perfect little balcony. We ordered up some dinner from Pies n Thighs and settled in for an evening of robot rock. I’m really not sure how else to convey my fondness for the Protomen live show at this point - last night was my eleventh show in twelve months, so I figure that by this time I’ve either convinced you that this is a thing you need to experience, or that I may be a little crazy. I’m OK with either result.

This morning I’m running on three hours of sleep and plenty of coffee. I leave for Massachusetts the day after tomorrow, so there’s quite a bit of scurrying around to be done between now and then, but I’m looking forward to it for sure.

• The Protomen: Sweet zombie Jesus, how I love The Protomen. There is no reason a 10-person Nashville band who do rock opera about Megaman should be good, but it so is. I have Tycho to thank for this one, actually. You may recall that I was still wicked sick during PAX, and consequently I thought pretty hard about disco-napping through the start of the Friday night shows and getting up just in time to see Front. I was assured, however, that even as a Protonoob I was in for quite a treat, and that turned out to be an understatement. Go get both albums right now, but also see if you can make it to a live show. I was blown away by their PAX set, and was similarly delighted at another show a couple weeks ago here in NYC. Totally worth seeing if you possibly can.
• Makeup and Vanity Set: I know about MAVS because of this awesome album of 8-bit Protomen remixes, which you should also acquire, but don’t stop there. The new self-titled album that came out in March is sheer pleasure. I feel like the same folks who dig Download and cEvin Key’s other solo stuff would dig this. Excellent background music for working.

• Anamanaguchi: Another PAX revelation! They’re also Brooklyn locals, which is handy. I recommend giving them a try even if you normally aren’t really into chiptune. I was skeptical, but both albums have made it into heavy rotation on my iPhone.
• Skeletonbreath: I love it when I’m surprised by an opening band. I feel like openers are often not paired very well with their headliners, which leads to everyone having kind of a shitty time. I can’t imagine it’s fun playing to a crowd that’s just waiting for you to get off the fucking stage, and while I appreciate the chance to pee and get another beer, I’d usually rather get an extra hour of sleep than see another band I’m not really into. But I’m really glad I got to see Skeletonbreath, because I can’t imagine I would have found out about them otherwise, and they’re rad. Go check them out.

So I spent the bulk of last week in Massachusetts, partly to visit my family but mainly to attend PAX East in Boston with seventy thousand of my closest friends. This year, PAX was in the fucking enormous BCEC instead of the comparatively diminutive Hynes, which meant I spent a good chunk of Friday trying to figure out where the hell I was and where the hell I was going, but I definitely walked off that fried dough over the course of the weekend. Because, oh yeah, they set up a goddamn carnival-style food court in one of the cavernous halls. It was but one of many wonders offered up to those who were intrepid enough to find them.

Earlier, I started trying to write up my entire PAX experience, and found it exhausting before I’d gotten halfway through Friday, so I think that’s a no-go. But I will give you a few highlights, and then many photos and also some videos.

As I mentioned before, the Friday night concert was definitely the best moment of PAX for me. The lineup featured not only my very favorite Protomen, but also MC Frontalot, of whom I am also very fond, as he is both an excellent rapper and a longtime friend. This was the only point during the weekend at which I abused my special Knowing People powers; they opened the concert line at 4pm for a 9pm show, and I could not quite stomach sitting on a floor for five hours, DS or no DS. So instead I got in during soundcheck, claimed the best spot in the house, made friends with some Enforcers, and improved a vending machine soda with the contents of my flask. Not a bad way to spend an hour. And then it was time for the show, which I can’t even begin to describe. It was wonderful, as good as or better than last year’s show. You can sample it for yourself, below.

Friday was also the night of my hotel room party, which I know was successful because it resulted in photos like the ones below and also in the arrival of several very stern people from hotel security at 4am. I woke up a few hours later and admired the wreckage: beer-soaked carpet, broken glasses, someone’s abandoned doughnut, beef jerky of mysterious origin, a gigantic (empty) bottle of Jack, and three people sleeping on my floor in nests of towels and extra sheets. I feel like this is the moment at which I knew without question that this PAX was a success.

Over the weekend I also managed to work in quite a lot of tabletop gaming, which was deeply satisfying. Apart from being a reason to actually sit down for a few hours, I got to try out a couple of new games, meet a couple of new people, and get my D&D fix for the first time in a couple of months. I really love the Dungeon Delve events that WotC holds during conventions even if they are, to a certain degree, not quite in the spirit of D&D. You get an hour to get as far into the adventure as you can, and at the end of the hour or whenever the party is dead, you are awarded tokens based on how far you got and how many things you killed. It’s really kind of awesome and bloodthirsty, and the tokens can be exchanged either for loot to use on your next delve, or for real life swag like condition cards or a WotC backpack or whatever. I just wish I’d had time to do it more.

Another highlight was Saturday night, when I attended not one but two off-site dinners. The first was held by Kickstarter and featured such awesome internet people as Len Peralta, Chris Dahlen, and our own Chris Pappavaselio. The second was all about lobster at No Name, and featured fun and beer. Saturday evening was actually the only time I made it out of the hotel/convention center orbit, but it was totally worth it.

Other highlights include Mega Ran’s late-night Jamspace set, the keynote and PA Q&A on Friday morning, all kinds of hotel room antics and shenanigans, post-con dinner at Michael Jackson O'Connor’s on Sunday night, and even watching the final round of the Omegathon from the seated comfort of the overflow room with my PAX besties. I cannot think of a single not-awesome thing that happened, and I really cannot wait until next year.

Last week started out peacefully enough - I didn’t do much on Monday and Tuesday except work and catch another Raspberry Brothers show with my crew at Knitting Factory. I did manage to get over to the rehearsal space I used to visit a lot for some practice on an acoustic drum set; I was curious if it would be strange after going all electronic for a while. It wasn’t strange, but my glee at discovering I can play along with some of my (easier) favorite songs now was overshadowed by the audible presence of a metal band next to me, complete with a metal drummer who made me feel woefully inadequate. But I figure he’s probably got like ten years on me, so.

On Wednesday I woke up with a pretty brutal cold, the kind that seems to completely take over your body in a matter of hours. I felt shitty enough that I actually missed seeing The Non-Commissioned Officers play the Canal Room for CMJ, which I feel bad about because I’d really been looking forward to that show. Thursday was spent in a pile of blankets on the couch, pouring soup and cold medicine down my throat in a desperate effort to get well as quickly as possible.

I actually made it to work on Friday, but once again I skipped out on seeing the show I’d been planning on attending - this time k.flay at Fat Baby. Once I got home from work, the idea of going back to Manhattan for any reason at all just seemed insurmountably difficult. So I spent the evening watching Paranormal Activity, Cannibal! The Musical and other classics of modern cinema on Netflix with my weekend houseguest. There may also have been pizza and Red Dead Redemption, but I can neither confirm nor deny reports of late-night drum practice.

On Saturday afternoon, my guest and I headed to Park Slope for the Flavorpill CMJ party featuring Storybook Burlesque. Much free Magic Hat was consumed with Schaffer, Front, and a mighty host of pretty ladies. Before the show, the only band in the lineup I was familiar with was Lower Dens, who I saw a few weeks back when they opened for Ra Ra Riot. But I was pleased to discover that Braids kicks all kinds of ass - definitely a group to keep an eye on, I think.

After the Flavorpill party, the rest of my Saturday was a massive swirling vortex of wonder and delight. The Protomen played Littlefield, and it was everything I hoped it could be. I won’t bother trying to describe the show, but I will mention that I’m very glad The Woes were part of the lineup, and also that the weird little Chinese place just down the street from the venue is actually pretty good. And I will post a few of the photos I took, the rest of which you may see if you desire over on Flickr. There are, of course, videos as well.

And then it was morning. You’d think one Protomen show in a weekend would be enough for me, but past experience has demonstrated that this is not the case, so the charming and capable Joe and I packed up and headed to Danbury to see the Sunday show at Heirloom Arts Theatre. Normally I’m an up front kind of girl, preferring to be mere inches from the stage whenever possible, but for this show I decided to camp out on the (most excellent) balcony. As a result my videos are blurry and my photos few, but as far as actual show experiences go, it was top-notch. It’s a whole different feeling when you can see the entire stage at once, and I enjoyed not being in the armpit of a sweaty dude all night (as I so often am).

Thanks to Joe and his magical means of conveyance, I actually made it home at a (relatively) decent hour on Sunday night, but I was still too full of post-show excitement to get a whole hell of a lot of sleep. But I definitely don’t regret trading sleep for epic memories. I may not get to see another Protomen show till 2011, but at least I can safely say that the last two I caught were completely perfect.