In honor of the Superbowl half-time entertainment (because I'm not really into the game this year since the Pats' lost so ugly to Indy) I've decided to list my top five favorite Prince songs.

In no particular order:

1. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World - "How can I get through days when I can't get through hours...I can try, but when I do I see you and I'm devoured" - all consuming love that we all want to feel for a soulmate.

2. Purple Rain - "I never wanted to be your weekend lover" - A song about heartbreak and loss, a feeling we've all experienced at some point in our life.

3. Erotic City - One of his songs that wasn't a hit or even heard on the radio but was a huge "B" side in the clubs when I DJ'ed in college. I got slapped by a drunk woman once who called me a pig for playing it. I'm thinking he won't be doing this one at the Superbowl.

4. Sign of the Times - "In September, my cousin tried reefer 4 the very first time...Now he's doing horse - it's June" Prince's comments about the late 80s including a reference to AIDS. Sometimes I do like socially relevent songs.

5. Head - "Til your love is red..." - One his funkiest songs with an incredible bass line.

My friend Rebecca posted this pretty neat list on her blog (http://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com/) and I thought I'd take a crack at it:

1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? On the beach in Rye, NH. There is nothing better I can think of than sitting on a deck facing the sea with a nice cup of coffee, my laptop working on my latest novel and a cool ocean breeze (and perhaps a little salt mist).

2.What's your favorite article of clothing? Hoodies. I wear them around the house probably three seasons a year. I was wearing them long before Bill Belichick made them fashionable.

3.Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex? Hmmm...I'm sure you're expecting the standard guy answer but I always liked a nice figure and pretty eyes are important too. Overall though, a great personality that exudes positive energy is by far the most important thing to me. (Okay, honestly....a tight set of abs really turns me on.)

4.What's the last CD that you bought? I bought that Miami Vice II soundtrack from eBay.

5.Where's your favorite place to be? Somewhere on the beach up on the NH seacoast holding hands and laughing with someone I love.

6.Where is your least favorite place to be? Sitting in traffic on Route 3 heading to work on a lousy dark winter morning.

7.What's your favorite place to be massaged? Definitely my shoulders and neck followed by my back.

8.Strong in mind or strong in body? The mind has always been stronger than the body!

9.What time do you wake up in the morning? During the work week, usually around 6:20. On weekends, whenever unless I have something important to do.

10. What is your favorite kitchen appliance? Coffee Maker.

11.What makes you really angry? Customer service idiots who have no clue (which reminds me of a good topic for a future blog).

12.If you could play any instrument, what would it be? I play guitar (decently) but would love to play piano or sax.

13. Favorite colour? Blue.

14.Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV? Well, I'm more of a pickup truck kind of guy but if I have to pick between the two I'd say SUV.

15. Do you believe in an afterlife? I do but not in the way most people I know do.

16.Favorite children's book? "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling especially Riki-Tiki-Tavi!

17. What is your favorite season? Fall. I love the crisp air, football season and the leaves changing colors.

18. Your least favorite household chore? Pick one!

19.If you could have one super power, what would it be? X-Ray vision....ha, ha, ha!!

20.If you have a tattoo, what is it? I often considered getting one but when I was younger but I was smart enough not to get some macho-bullshit tattoo like most military guys. I believe if you get a tattoo, it should be meaningful to you. That said, I want one now but haven't had an opportunity to go.

21.Can you juggle? No, but I can tap dance with the best of them!

22. The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to? My grandmother Esther. She was the ony person who really understood me as a child and I miss her dearly. She was taken at far too young an age.

23. What's your favorite day? Saturday I guess.

24. What's in the trunk of your car? Pickup trucks don't have trunks!

25. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger? I like sushi but I'll take a great cheeseburger over sushi anyday!

So there you have it. How about you?

More Random Thoughts....

My Top Five Concerts in no particular order. I've been to probably a hundred or so shows in my life and seen a lot of great performers; unfortunately some bad ones too.

1. Springsteen and E-Street Band (2000 - Orlando Arena) - My favorite performer and someone who I'd tried to see numerous times before but I'd never been able to score tickets. This was the big reunion tour when he put the E-Street band back together and it was phenomenal from the first note of "My Love Will Not Let You Down" to the last note of "Land of Hope & Dreams." Ig to chills when they did "Thunder Road" which is my favorite song. Despite Bruce's political leanings, it's an absolute must that I see them again at some future point. It really felt like a religious experience. I also have this great story about the stripper I sat next to hitting on me and almost getting her ass kicked by my wife....

2. Garth Brooks (2000 - Orlando Arena) Garth is probably the greatest live performer I have ever witnessed. It was like a mix between a KISS concert and a country hoedown. Even if you're not a country fan, I defy anyone to tell me they didn't have a good time at a Garth show. It's too bad he's retired (which I expect he'll eventually come out of).

3. Billy Joel (1987 - Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX) - My senior year of college and I was there for an Air Force ROTC convention. We were staying across the street and scored tickets to this sold out show from a scalper at face value minutes after the show started. This was BJ at his prime back when he was still doing backflips off his piano.

4. Don Henley & Friends (1990 - Worcester Centrum) - This was the first Walden Woods Concert that Henley held and the list of guests was incredible. Bonnie Raitt opened the show and then Jimmy Buffet did a set. Henley did about an hour of his solo material ("End of the Innocence" is a top five album for me) and then was joined by fellow Eagles Glen Frey and Timothy B. Schmitt and they tore through over an hour of Eagles' classics. This was long before The Eagles whent on their never ending farewell tour (with ridiculous ticket prices) so it was pretty special.

5. Lionel Richie (1986 - Worcester Centrum) - Lionel was an icon of the eighties and this was at his peak. I have never been to a show that sounded so crystal clear. The sound mix was perfect and he did all his big hits from his solo career and with The Commodores. Sure laugh at me now but it was an utterly fantastic show. During one song, the stage raised Lionel up at a peak so he was at the top of the arena playing his piano.

Now there were other great shows I'd been to (Prince, Huey Lewis, Bob Seger, 38 Special, The Rolling Stones and more) but for various reasons, these five stand out as the best of the best.

At some future point, I'll draw up the list of who I want to see. At the top is U2, another group that I've just never been lucky enough to score tickets to a show.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love all things 80s...and why not? Those were my carefree days of responsiblily only to me and my entire life was ahead of me.

I still have my albums from those days (you know round discs made out of vinyl) collecting dust in my den's closet but unfortunately I no longer have a record player and some of them are out of print. So what's a guy to do especially when I'm longing to hear my "Miami Vice" II soundtrack?

Go to eBay of course. I found the out of print CD and got it for a whole penny (plus $5 shipping...grrrr). While some of the stuff on there is crap, there are a few obscure songs that I adore such as Steve Jones' (guitarist of the Sex Pistols) "Mercy" or Andy Taylor's (guitarist for Duran Duran) "When the Rain Comes Down." Sure they're a bit dated but who cares? They bring me back to the days when no one went out on Friday nights until eleven when "Vice" was over and I had a closet full of white linen jackets and pastel t-shirt.

Time has probably clouded my memories of those days (that and the copious amounts of alchol I drank) but now I understand how my parents feel about the late fifties and early sixties. Would I go back? Perhaps....

Well, I was completely without power for two days and wouldn't you know it, the coldest weather of the year hits. We toughed it out for a day but with the single digits coming and no electricity in site, we had to go to a hotel. Finally, this morning around nine o'clock the power came back. I'll take a blizzard over an ice storm any day.

I may have to invest in a generator. We seem to lose power three or four times a year where I live and while it's a pain in the summer, in the winter it can be deadly. I haven't lost any pipes yet and hopefully, never will.

On to other topics...

Someone sent me one of those "what kind of" polls on-line and I decided to do this one. Now I know my guy friends will bust my chops over this but what the hell, why not?

You're an Passionate Kisser

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

No surprise there. My Italian side shining through! One note though, someone needs to check their grammar. I don't know, maybe only a writer would catch that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know it's been over a week since I posted. I'll try to be more regular for those of you who care. :)

So I see an Air Force Staff Sergeant is in trouble for posing nude in Playboy. I've been reading the opinions on it and most civilians with no military experience seem to think it's okay. Would that she worked for IBM or Walmart that might be true but the military is different. When you sign up, you give up certain rights...and the right to take off your clothes and pose nude in a men's magazine is one of them.

There is such a thing as "good order and discipline" that you don't require working at McDonald's or your local dentist's office. This woman especially is in a position of authority over Air Force basic trainees as a Training Instructor and like it or not, her posing for Playboy erodes the respect that they'll have for her. They'll no longer look at her as a leader or authority figure, she'll be the chick that they saw naked in Playboy.

I suspect she's thrown away her twelve years of service to our country and be asked to leave the Air Force. They're cutting forty-thousand people anyway so I doubt any officer who has to make that decision will find it to be a hard one. Eight years from retirement...I wonder what Playboy paid her to give it all up.

So that's my opinion as a former military officer. I know you're dying to know what think as a man. Well....she's a thirty year old mother of two and she's smoking hot. (Yeah, I know they airbrush the pictures.) I'd prefer to see thirty or forty year old women than the nineteen and twenty year olds they generally feature anyway. (I don't have a subscription if you were wondering but every now and then I'll browse through an issue.) My taste in older women however is probably a subject for another time.

More random thoughts:

January in these parts now regularly means NFL playoffs and the Patriots are once again in the thick of things. They've got a tough path ahead of them to get to the Superbowl but I've learned to never count this team out.

When are the Red Sox going to just forget about J.D. Drew? It's obvious something is happening behind the scenes and this guy is damaged goods. Theo needs to focus his efforts on getting a closer and consider resigning Trot Nixon.

Does this weather prove Al Gore is right? Hardly. I love when Global Warming kooks say things like "this is the hottest summer on record" as some kind of validation of their junk science. Considering man has inhabitated this planet for only about four thousand or so years, how the hell do we know what the record temps really are? Climate change is an inevitable cycle of the Earth and nothing we do is going to change that.

My new year's resolution was not to make a resolution. Problem of breaking my resolution resolved! It's much better to just set goals for the year since they are more like guidelines than rules.

So after close to two weeks off, it's finally back to work. Nice to get that much time off to recharge.

I hear Britney Spears "fell asleep" at some club in Vegas on New Years Eve and had to be carried back to her room. Sure...and that was a "sinus" headache I had the morning after New Years Eve. Has any celebrity ever been further out of control? I'm seriously considering putting her in my celebrity deathpool.

2007 is going to be awesome for movies. "Ghostrider" finally premiers next month, then this summer "Spiderman 3" comes out. There are way too many movies due out that I'm looking forward to.

Speaking of movies, "Borat" was my favorite for 2006. Funniest movie I've seen in a long, long time.

Speaking again of movies, Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have reportedly finally found an Indy IV script they can agree on. I've heard the big sticking point was Ford and Spielberg didn't think that Jar Jar Binks was a solid sidekick for Indy. The title is supposed to be "Indiana Jones and the Shuffleboard of Death" but I'm thinking they may change that.