last year i took to the road to see Ryan Adams three times in three nights. this year he’s going to be touring again in October, and i’m lining up plans to go to two shows in two nights. the Texas dates probably won’t work out at all, but the shows in Alabama and Georgia will. i bought my ticket yesterday for the show in Tuscaloosa, and i got 2nd row. :) however, the base price of the ticket was $35 and my total for ONE ticket had an $11.80 ‘convenience’ fee. to make up for completely gouging me, ticketmaster sent me a code for a free song off iTunes. thanks i guess. (i ended up getting that new Madonna song “4 Minutes”)

i’m off work today, but i ended up sleeping in rather than watching the water polo. however, the USA didn’t need my help and are playing for the gold Sunday! incidentally, it’s going to be about an hour after the basketball gold medal game tips off, so i’m not sure how much sleep i’ll be getting.

speaking of basketball, the US team beat Argentina today. it was supposed to come on around 9:15 am, but no, the NOLA NBC station tape delayed it so they could show the Today show in its entirety. it’s a known fact the Today show does not get good viewership in NOLA, but they tape delay it everyday maybe thinking no one will figure out that Today shows times in ET not CT. so today because of their ridiculous planning, i had to watch the basketball game an hour later than everyone else in the country. in addition to the tape delay, they cut in almost every 15 minutes with a weather update to show TS Fay will probably come this way by Sunday or Monday. they didn’t do a split screen or anything, they just skipped ahead during the game, one time with 3 seconds to go in the first half. what is wrong with them? the ironic thing is that the affiliate’s slogan is “on your side”, but in this case they were not. the main thing though, is that the US team has finally made it to the gold medal game, which is awesome.