Hanson

It's rare to see pop performers work harder than they have to onstage. Usually what you get is a well-rehearsed impersonation of energy and enthusiasm. But on Saturday night at the Electric Factory, Hanson genuinely ripped it up, romping through a two-hour-plus set that was an unalloyed pleasure. The sibling singers certainly didn't have to try so hard. Their still rabid female fan base would scream deliriously if Isaac, Taylor and Zac merely strolled out and waved to the crowd.

Keep those chins up, guys. Here, have a Lifesaver. It's not your fault that the new Hanson album is in the tank. Your first album was totally Jackson Five and this one should have been your Thriller, but instead it's turning out to be your History. When you stake your career on the whims of teenage girls - well, you live by the hormone, you die by the hormone. But you have advantages over the teen-pop competition - you play your own instruments, you write your own songs, you can really sing - that will save your career.

When Emilyanne was born, an older and wiser friend offered bemused congratulations. "So you've had a daughter," he said, grinning wickedly. "That's great. You have 12 wonderful years ahead of you. " Being a rookie at the fatherhood thing, I just nodded. Wise and thoughtful was the effect I was going for, although what I really felt was pity. He might have raised two daughters, but what did he know? With all due modesty, I handled her My-Daddy-Is-the-Best stage beautifully. Sometimes she fought with her brother, Danby, who is 14 months younger.

When Kevin Kolb starts getting all the repetitions with the Eagles' first-team offense, it draws massive attention, even at these contact-free spring camps. That's the essence of playing quarterback in the NFL and being the backup to Donovan McNabb. When Joselio Hanson and Nick Graham start working with the first-team defense, on the other hand, they can still pretty much go about their business without being questioned by a pack armed with notebooks, microphones and cameras.

They were young, confident and charming, dripping with the sultry naughty-boy looks that - well, Louis Pearlman just knew these five guys would be on the bedroom walls of teenage girls across America. But five years ago, America wanted grunge and rap. The Backstreet Boys and their breezy, white-bred dance-pop didn't stand a chance against Kurt Cobain and Tupac Shakur. Pearlman, a Florida entrepreneur who had taken out newspaper ads seeking five fresh faces, sent his fledgling guy-group overseas at the urging of their record label, Jive, and their managers, Johnny and Donna Wright.

Apart from the obvious fast-money titles - David Lee Roth's erratic, rather unglued biography Crazy From the Heat (Hyperion, $23.95), the Poppy Z. Bright treatment of Courtney Love, the inevitable quickie bios of Hanson and others - this year's crop of books on music align with one of the trends defining the music itself: They're splintered into tiny subgenres, trained on niche audiences. Even the outburst of titles devoted to Frank Sinatra is narrow in scope. There are books on Sinatra's style, on his musical gifts, on the gossip surrounding him. In this specialized environment, Philadelphia-based music phenomenons found a bit of spotlight this year.

Camden County Republican Chairman John Hanson, who for years has criticized Democrats for playing the political patronage game, has been appointed to a $72,000 job with the Whitman administration. Hanson, who has led the county GOP since February 1996, was named director of urban programs for the New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, formerly the Department of Commerce. Hanson is replacing Susan R. Rose, a Cherry Hill Republican who unsuccessfully ran for a state Assembly seat in 1997, and whose campaign Hanson helped run. As director of urban programs, Hanson said he would be responsible for helping enterprise zones, or distressed urban areas in New Jersey, with job creation and economic development - a job he said he landed because of his background as a certified public accountant and elected official.

In all the rhapsodizing over Hanson as redeemers of pure pop music, a basic question of competence has been overlooked: Can the Tulsa, Okla., teen trio, known for the hurtling bubblegum hit "MMMBop," play their instruments convincingly enough to justify their album sales? Tuesday, at the first of two sold-out shows at the CoreStates Center, the brothers Hanson - guitarist Isaac, keyboardist and lead singer Taylor, drummer Zak - quashed all doubts within minutes of taking the stage.

In the weeks leading to the May 9 release of Hanson's This Time Around, the recording industry assessed the trio's elaborate marketing campaign with a mixture of respect and skepticism. Every detail needed to repeat the success of the brothers' 1997 smash Middle of Nowhere appeared to be in place. There were Hanson cover stories in several teen magazines and prominent features in others. Radio stations were running myriad contests. TV appearances were slotted on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Late Show With David Letterman, MTV's Total Request Live, and CNN's Showbiz Today.

The New York City drug dealer came to Philadelphia and won the heart of Nicole Heyward last year. But Gregory "Ninja" Hanson, 20, broke Heyward's heart when he battered her 22-month-old son to death inside a drug house on Lindenwood Street near Jefferson, on March 21, 1994, said Assistant District Attorney Paul Riley. Yesterday, Common Pleas Judge David N. Savitt told Hanson he was lucky he hadn't been convicted of first-degree murder for killing little Shaquan McDaniels.

BRANDON Boykin is the Eagles' flavor of the month. A feisty, physical, 5-9 cornerback/return man whom folks have been gushing about ever since he fell into the team's lap in the fourth round of last month's draft. Many already have assumed that when the Eagles open the regular season on Sept. 9 in Cleveland, Boykin will be their No. 3 corner, manning the inside in their nickel package, with Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on the outside. You'll forgive Joselio Hanson if he doesn't go along with that assumption.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Was there anyone not named Tiger Woods who didn't make it onto the Masters leader board at some point Saturday? It was the kind of rollicking stuff that this place so often produces. And by the time CBS signed off on what had been an absolutely pristine Chamber of Commerce kind of afternoon, things got loud. That's what happens when Phil Mickelson, who has won the first major of the season three times in the last eight years, gets magical here. He played in the seventh-to-last group, just ahead of Peter Hanson, one of his playing partners the first two days.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Was there anyone not named Tiger Woods who didn't make it onto the Masters leaderboard at some point Saturday? It was the kind of rollicking stuff that this place so often induces. And by the time CBS signed off on what had been an absolutely pristine Chamber of Commerce kind of afternoon, things got loud. That's what happens when Phil Mickelson, who's won the first major of the season three times in the last eight years, gets magical here. He played in the seventh-to-last group, just ahead of Peter Hanson, one of his playing partners the first two days.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is just one player on a defense that has been truly wretched this season. So there have been plenty of targets at which to sling arrows. Still, you have to wonder if the absence of the cornerback, who was out with a high ankle sprain, had anything to do with the strong outing by the defense in the first half Sunday night? With Joselio Hanson taking Rodgers-Cromartie's spot as the fifth cornerback, the Giants pass offense sputtered.

JOSELIO HANSON is back where he belongs this week, back where he has largely thrived since 2006. Hanson is the Eagles' slot cornerback, now that Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is expected to miss at least a few weeks with a high ankle sprain and torn ligaments. When the team started stockpiling Pro Bowl corners in training camp, Hanson was demoted - he was even cut briefly - and he has mostly played in dime situations and on special teams this year, his sixth with the Eagles. "I'm ready to showcase what I've got, again," said Hanson, 30, who can't be sure of a long-term future with the Eagles.

Late Show With David Letterman (11:35 p.m., CBS3) - Sting performs. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (11:35 p.m., NBC10) - Evangeline Lilly; Magic Johnson. Jimmy Kimmel Live (midnight, 6ABC) - Jane Lynch; Ramon Rodriguez; Blink 182 performs. Conan (12:30 a.m., TBS) - Jack McBrayer; comic Colin Quinn; Hanson performs.

ON SATURDAY, sitting at a blackjack table at Caesars in Atlantic City, Joselio Hanson's cellphone rang. It was the Eagles. They had cut him. Hanson, a valuable backup cornerback, didn't sweat it. He went back to the table, recouped his losses and left the casino. "I broke even," Hanson said. "It all worked out. " Indeed it did. Hanson, 30, received only tepid interest from five other teams, the Giants and Rams among them. Neither was willing to sign Hanson this week; signing him this week would mean his contract is guaranteed through the season.

Joselio Hanson is back, returning to the Eagles on Wednesday, four days after being released in a cost-cutting move. Hanson signed a new two-year contract, one that offers some savings to the Eagles compared with the $2.4 million salary cap hit they would have taken under his old deal. The team did not release exact figures. To make room on the roster the team released cornerback Trevard Lindley, a fourth-round pick in 2010. Hanson, an Eagles regular at nickel back since 2006, was expected to be snapped up by another team, but a deal never came together.

Fredi Gonzalez sat in the visitors dugout, hours before Tommy Hanson would pitch a gem, and tried to demonstrate why the 24-year-old righty was so effective. The Braves manager's index and middle fingers cupped an invisible baseball as he fidgeted with his wrist, attempting to mimic Hanson. "It's not a traditional delivery," Gonzalez said of his starter, who lasted seven innings, allowed four hits and one run, and struck out six in the 4-1, 11-inning Braves win on Saturday.