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September 9, 2008

The Twelfth Thing to Love About Madison: Fall

Right now, I'm thinking that fall has to be my favorite season. There's something about the crisp air on a fall night that makes the world seem--for lack of a more hetero term--magical. Fall reminds me of riding ferris wheels, Halloween, the feeling of being buried in blankets, Wes Anderson movies, and that scene from American Beauty where Ricky's showing Jane the video of the plastic bag. Fall makes me feel, for whatever reason, like the world is full of awesome possiblities but that, at the same time, it's on the brink of ending. Fall in Wisconsin is even awesomer....

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October 29, 2007

The Eleventh Thing to Love About Madison: Freakfest or Halloween Weekend

Another Halloween weekend has come and gone, and Madison still stands. That's not really a surprise, anymore, though. And that's not a bad thing. As it turns out, only about 40,000 showed up this year, which is a pretty large number, but not big at all when compared to the numbers from a few years ago. Still, as far as I've read, there weren't any riots and no tear gas. Not even any broken shop windows, it seems. You can read about the whole thing here. My friends and I started out the day by watching the Badgers trounce Indiana....

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September 16, 2007

The Tenth Thing to Love About Madison: The Farmer's Market

So, although I've lived in Madison for over three years now, I had never made it down to the famed farmer's market around the capital. This was partly due to the fact that I hate getting up early on weekends--or at all, really--and the fact that I don't really buy a lot of produce, anyway. But I finally went this weekend, and it was pretty good. First of all, there's not just produce, although there's certainly lots of that. But there's also a shitload of a really good baked goods (I had an awesome cheese danish), lots of meat products...

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August 15, 2007

"Bartlet for America"

Although Mr. Vice lent me the DVDs about a year ago, I've just now finished watching the seventh season of The West Wing. I have to say that I think it was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the first four seasons. I really missed some of the older characters, and I was happy to see Sam come back. It sucks that Zoey didn't really get to do much and we never found out what happened between her and Charlie, but it was good to see Charlie go off to law school--you know he's going to be a...

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July 2, 2007

The Ninth Thing to Love About Madison: Rhythm and Booms (Also, Sunday at Devil's Lake)

Yesterday was Rhythm and Booms, a day-long celebration of America and awesomeness. Mr. Vice, PH, Mr. Utah, RPM, Bluebunny and I spent the day watching the Madison Mallards get their collective asses handed to them by some team called the LaCrosse Loggers. First off--this is Wisconsin, and there's a brewery in LaCross. The team should be called the "LaCrosse Lagers." But, whatever. The point is that the Loggers embarrassed the Mallards. The final score was 16-7. It was pathetic. In fact, it was so terrible that if you took the Mallards' final score and the total number of errors they...

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June 3, 2007

The Eighth Thing to Love About Madison: Vilas Park Zoo (Also, Sometimes Saturdays Kick Ass)

A bunch of us went and watched Knocked Up today. I liked it, probably more than anyone else in the group, although I think the reactions were mostly positive, with the possible exception of RPM and Bluebunny. In any event, I would recommend it, but with the caveat that you should not expect to laugh as hard as at 40-Year-Old Virgin. Before the movie, Bluebunny, RPM, and I went to the Henry Vilas Zoo, which is the free zoo here in Madison. I thought it was pretty cool, especially considering that it's free. Of course, it's no where near as...

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March 14, 2007

The Seventh Thing to Love About Madison: Spring

Goddamn, it's was cold for a while. But it looks like winter is now mostly behind us. Although the official start to spring is still a few weeks away, we've had a precursor to the season of rebirth here in Madison. Where before there were huge piles of snow, there are now only large puddles, which themselves dry up rather quickly. Where before there were several frozen lakes, there are now mostly unfrozen lakes, although some idiots are still out there icefishing. Where before there were down jackets, there are now t-shirts, at least for me. It's a great feeling...

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March 4, 2007

The Sixth Thing to Love About Madison: Fish Fries

Perhaps no Wisconsin tradition instantly struck me as being awesome as the Friday night fish fries. Let me explain for those of you who might not have had the pleasure of attending a fish fry in Wisconsin. Basically, every Friday, the vast majority of non-chain restaurants in Wisconsin offer a fried fish dinner. It started as a religious observance for Catholics during Lent, but has grown far beyond that. If it's Friday and you're in Wisconsin, you can bet that you'll smell the sweet fragrance of deep-fried cod or bluegill or something. There're so many to choose from, it's almost...

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February 14, 2007

The Fifth Thing to Love About Madison: Sledding

One of the purposes of this series of posts is to get me to go out and do some things in Madison that I haven't done before, given that I probably won't be here much longer. Further, I have to admit that, while sledding is one of my favorite winter activities, I've done little to know sledding while in Madison. This is simply an unacceptable state of affairs. Therefore, I invite any interested party to come sledding with me sometime this weekend. Now, normal sledding (that is, where you walk to the top of a hill, get on your sled,...

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January 31, 2007

The Fourth Thing to Love About Madison: Bucky Badger

Now, I have to admit that the first time I ever saw Bucky, I thought he was the gayest mascot in the land. But that's because I saw the wood carving statute at State Street Brats, which, it must be admitted, is rather gay looking. But, since those first naive days of my 1L years, I've come to love Mr. Buckingham U. Badger. Bucky is the best mix of manly aggression and adorable cuteness. Yeah, he's technically part of the cheerleading squad, but he's also able to do something like sixty push ups when we're beating second-rate football teams like...

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January 10, 2007

The Third Thing to Love About Madison: Smart Studios

Smart Studios is the recording studio here in Madison. It's run by Butch Vig, drummer for Garbage, producer of Nirvana's Nevermind and, more important to me, The Smashing Pumpkins' Gish and Siamese Dream. Mr. Vig is also a regular at Genna's Lounge, one of my favorite downtown bars. Although The Isthmus article says that Nirvana recorded Nevermind at Smart Studios, that's not actually true. Nirvana did the initial sessions for what would become Nevermind in Madison, but then moved on to a different studio. The only song on the final album that was recorded in Madison is "Polly," although ovedubs...

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December 9, 2006

The Second Thing to Love About Madison: State Street

You know that scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Sam stops and he says that if he takes one more step, he'll be further from home than he's ever been before? Well, I had one of those moments when I left Flagstaff and drove East. Although I had been to New York City and Boston before, I hadn't driven further East than the Eastern Arizona border. Yes, even though I had lived in Arizona my whole life, I had never been to New Mexico. Now that I have, I know I wasn't missing much. Anyway, my friends were...

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December 2, 2006

The First Thing to Love About Madison: Winter

Ever since I was a little kid, winter's been my favorite season. The thing I really like about winter is that it's the season when it's easiest to feel cozy. There's nothing like looking out your window, seeing the beautiful snow falling to the ground, and then rolling over, curling up with your blankets, and going right back to sleep. I did that this morning, in fact. Yes, the Midwest got hit by the first snowstorm of the year today. I hadn't been reading the weather forecasts, so I was kinda surprised when I looked out my window and saw...

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November 29, 2006

150 Things to Love About Madison

I was hit by a confluence of influences today. First, Mr. Vice's recent series on his favorite TV shows got me started about what possible series I could start myself. Second, there was the recent post I did on 150 things about me. And, most importantly, the cover story on the current issue of the Isthmus: 150 Things We Love About Madison. Basically, it's a list of 150 things that make Madison awesome. I find this particularly interesting since Madison is, by far, the best city I've ever lived in, and I'm kinda sad that I'll (probably) be leaving here...

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