I made my first visit to Madison, Wisconsin, this weekend, for a cousin’s wedding. It was a cool event that included a prayer for the end of the exploitation of the powerless; at the reception, the wedding party entered to the strains of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and the couple’s first dance was to a lounge-y version of a Lou Reed song.

The CCBC, sadly, was closed for a between-semesters break, but I had a great time nonetheless. There’s a fantastic farmer’s market on all sides of the state capitol, and downtown Madison reminds me simultaneously of the UT campus area and Greenwich Village, two places I love to amble around.