so the other day it was revealed that Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore are engaged. i was emailed by my friend CJ on Wednesday and heard it first from her. I’m not really surprised considering they’ve dated before, and i saw her in pictures from Australia that he posted on his blog. i think it’s great. the following is a text conversation i had yesterday about it.

Jacob: “CNN.com is reporting that Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore are engaged”
Me: “Yeah, gossip places had it yesterday. CNN must read pitchfork who read gossip blogs. I am jealous of him”
Jacob: “I’m jealous of her”
Me: “I don’t think I could marry a vegetarian”
Jacob: “Oh. Yeah, that’s a dealbreaker”

also yesterday it was announced that RA would be playing an acoustic show in ATL in March. i discussed it with a friend, but ultimately decided the hassle/disappointment ratio would probably not be in our favor. what is the hassle/disappointment ratio? it was something i came up with yesterday. i go to a lot of concerts, right? i usually measure the worth of going by what day the show’s on, what time does it start, have i seen the band before, was the show any good, etc. all these factors usually are weighed against how much i like the band. yesterday though i came up with a new theory. if the amount of hassle is equal to the amount of disappointment, then the show was not worth going to see. if there’s hardly any hassle, then if the show sucks it’s no big deal. if there’s a lot of hassle but the show is legendary, then that’s okay too. the last two Nickel Creek shows in Nashville that i went to weren’t that much of a hassle, cause i love Nashville and i’ll use any excuse to go, but the shows were huge disappointments. i’m kind of glad i still went, but i don’t rank the two Nashville shows in my top 5 NC shows ever. let’s just say i’d be okay had i not been there. the weekend in Nashville was super fun though. back to the RA acoustic show…..the hassle of going would be driving to ATL from Birmingham (i’m going to be there already for the RA show on 3/6), then going to the show, leaving late going back to Birmingham, and missing a day of work (since the show is on Sunday). that’s a lot of hassle for a show that will probably be shorter than a regular RA show. the only appeal would be that it’s acoustic, and the setlist would probably be very different. it’s theoretical though, because the band hasn’t played an acoustic show in a while. however, all these factors add up to the disappointment needing to be almost zero for the hassle to cancel out. and as much as i think the disappointment would be almost zero, i can’t help but remember thinking the same thing before i flew up to Nashville in November 2007. i’m usually a person who does things for the experience than not doing them, but the past month or so i’ve been really into trying to save money and change my spending habits. 4 RA shows is going to have to be it for me.

before you think i’m crazy though, i can explain. i got free tickets to the ATL show, so i’m going to that. i got tickets for Birmingham because i wanted to go to more than one show, and go with a fellow super fan. after i already had tickets for those shows, Mobile was scheduled a week later. i bought tickets for that, then like three weeks later Baton Rouge got scheduled, so i got tickets for that. the hassle for Baton Rouge and Mobile is almost nothing, and both Birmingham and ATL are on Fridays where i don’t have work so i don’t have to take vacation days to go to any of these shows. so as much as i’d want to see the acoustic show, it just won’t work.