Well, it has once again been quite a week. I enjoyed meeting a bunch of you at the Brooklyn Blogger Meetup on Tuesday - I was too busy drinking and shaking hands and finding places to tuck business cards to take any photos, but picture The Bell House full of rowdy nerds with nametags and you’ve got the general idea.

The other big thing last week was, of course, Blip Festival 2011. Ran into a ton of people from out of town that I’ve met at other events (MAGFest, Nerdapalooza, PAX East) and all the usual suspects I see at other NYC chip shows. There were cupcakes, and 3D printers, and many cups of Six Point Sweet Action, and just a shit ton of really great music. I was only able to attend the first night as I was out of town over the weekend, but it was still a great time. I’ve included a few of my favorite photos below, but you can find the rest over on Flickr and a bunch of videos on my Vimeo page.

As for the weekend, I headed home to Massachusetts to do some family-type things with my family-type people. We actually had a few hours of sun on Saturday, during which I created this panorama of my parents’ yard, and this one too. You’ll need Silverlight to see them, and I wholly understand if you prefer not to install it. Just imagine a bunch of trees, and some grass, and also a bit of sun.

Here is a picture of my parents’ dog, who does not like having her picture taken.

• 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.