What do you do when you don't have an idea for an entry? Why, you do the Friday Five. If, of course, it is Friday. I don't know what you do the rest of the week.

1. What was the first band you saw in concert? Besides the school band? That would be the Beach Boys, following a July game at Yankee Stadium (Yankees/Brewers). There was about a half-hour break after the last out while they set up a stage behind second base and then the Boys came out. I remember them making some East Coast/West Coast comment before launching into "Be True To Your School" (Rah-rah-rah, sis-boom-bah).

My first "real" concert � i.e., one that basically wasn't a free promo to admission to another event � was the Steve Miller Band at the Garden State Arts Center (which has since been sold to the Devil in a naming rights deal and shares a name with the new ballpark in Pittsburgh). My friend Joe's dad knew someone who had season tickets to the Arts Center and for about three straight years gave us their four tickets so for three straight years we saw him from the fourth row. One year a girl in front of us threw up.

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now? It's got to be Bruce. I was once just an owned-the-CD-of-Born In The U.S.A. fan, too young to have seen him in concert (what with his long hiatus from recording and touring with the E Street Band). But when they reunited and came back with that reunion tour a few years ago, I went and became hooked.

There are numerous other bands/artists I'd consider favorites: Billy Joel, David Gray, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Cowboy Junkies and so many more, but they're all just about even on a step just below Springsteen. I also think I'm more of a fan of Dave Matthews in concert than I am of his recent studio work, and I'm the opposite with Counting Crows � I have all their CDs, but I'm unimpressed with them live. We'll see if that changes with this summer's tour with John Mayer.

3. What's your favorite song? I mentioned just the other day that I can't choose one, but if I had to, it'd be "Thunder Road." Or the "Notre Dame Victory March." Or maybe our Alma Mater. But I really think it's unfair to ask for one favorite song. That's why I think Rob Gordon had it right with his Top 5 in High Fidelity. Because you need certain songs for certain moods. But with "Thunder Road," I can turn that song on and turn it up in any situation. I'll play it on juke boxes in bars or restaurants, leave it on when I find it on the radio, pop in a CD to hear it in the car. I may just listen to it now, in fact. Now, I haven't ever written any songs, but I would say that asking this question is like asking a parent to name his or her favorite child. Or maybe not.

4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?My voice. I'd just like to be able to sing. I'd like to be the quiet frontman who doesn't play an instrument. But if I were to play one, I'd like to try the guitar first. With the guitar, you can have an acoustic one and play by yourself anytime, anywhere, particularly around the camp fire. And when you know how to play the guitar, I imagine, it's a short step to picking up the banjo, yukelele and mandolin and therefore expanding the songs you can write and perform as a band. Second after the guitar is the piano, because that could be fun.

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why? I'm not going to say Bruce because I grew up near where he lives and I've had probably half a dozen near-misses, so it's bound to happen some day. Especially if I continue in the entertainment media business.

I'd like to meet John Lennon or Woody Guthrie because their passions extended beyond simply making music; their songs were about things, often their views and ideas. I'd like to meet Bob Dylan in a Greenwich Villiage bar in the 60s. And I'd like to meet Francis Scott Key and stand next to him on the edge of Baltimore Harbor and see the Star-Spangled Banner billowing in the breeze having withstood the bombardment of the rockets and see if I could feel the same thing he felt and be as inspired.

All of a sudden I feel sick. It might be all the sugar.