High Gear

Urban Dance Squad returned to Philadelphia Monday night like men on a mission. After a conspicuous three-year absence from touring, the multi-ethnic European rockers barely broke the breakneck pace of their show at Middle East until their meaty, but mellow, four-song encore. For a little more than 90 minutes, UDS delivered a noisy hybrid of muscular, electric rock - just this side of head-banging - and in-your-face, rap-like vocals that have become its trademark. They pair this with chunky bass lines delivered by "Sil" (bassist Silvano Matadin)

AS THE convention season begins, I just wanted to share an "evil Republican" thought with the editors of the self-announced Philadelphia mass-media adjunct to the Kerry-Edwards campaign: If John Kerry and John Edwards cannot "close the deal" this week, and there is still doubt about the outcome of the presidential election, when will the Democratic National Committee invoke New Jersey rules and pull a Kerry flip-flop (flim-flam?) similar to the Torricelli/Lautenberg flip-flop they trotted out two years ago?

Heavily favored Iftiraas, allowed to set a very slow pace, crushed five opponents in yesterday's $100,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Handicap at Philadelphia Park. The Irish-bred four-year-old filly, ridden by Heberto Castillo Jr., held a clear advantage after setting fractions of 24 2/5 seconds for the quarter, 49 4/5 for the half, and 1 minute, 13 4/5 seconds for six furlongs. When Castillo then asked her to accelerate at the top of the stretch, the Bill Mott trainee drew clear to win by five lengths, with Doc's Destiny second, one length before Impending Bear.

Watching Rasheim "Feet" Wright make major contributions in football and basketball, one can't fathom he never intended to participate in sports at Martin Luther King High. Ninth grade came and went and he did nothing. Tenth grade came and went and he did nothing. Eleventh grade came and . . . All right! Finally! "I was always academically eligible. I could have played. I just never bothered," Wright said. "See, I used to be one of those guys who needed to be pushed; now I push myself.

There's no more joyous musical celebration of Christ's birth than the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah, so don't worry. It shows up in all its splendor - and with a jazz beat, to boot - in Leja Dance Theater's tribute to the event, Carols in Color. But Leon James, who did the overall direction of this music-and-dance extravaganza, also uses a kind of music that in its way gets to the heart of the matter just as well. That music is the sound of a baby crying at the top of his lungs.

For a 54-year-old grandmother, Tina Turner's not doing shabbily. The singer, who appears this weekend in Atlantic City, is a multi-media presence. The film biography of her rough-and-tumble life with mentor/ex-hubby Ike, "What's Love Got to Do with It," is a critical and commercial success. So too is the Virgin Records soundtrack album by Turner, proffering a few slick new tunes along with Tina's remakes of oldies-but-goodies like "Nutbush City Limits" and "Proud Mary. " Yes, she's capable of growling with the same sultry attack as 30 years ago, while also evoking deeper, more rueful shadings, especially on the title track.

Fortunately for us all, this is the wrong Texas city for the media mob following the Stanley Cup finals to pull out a lot of hackneyed Alamo references today. But heading into tonight's Game 4, the defending champion Dallas Stars are trailing, 2-1, and only a couple of key Ed Belfour saves in Game 2 from being down 3-0, staring at a sweep. The Stars clearly seem outgunned by the younger, quicker Devils. If you didn't get that from watching the first three games, you could hear it yesterday when Stars coach Ken Hitchcock addressed the media.

Early last week, coach Ken Hitchcock claimed the Flyers' tank was beginning to refill for the stretch run. In his burst of optimism, he didn't mention they were using high-octane fuel. The Flyers last night put an exclamation mark on their best week since late December, employing a relentless early attack to win their fourth consecutive game and cool down the torrid Ottawa Senators, 6-3, at the Wachovia Center. It was not a good night for late-arriving spectators. Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos, Jeff Carter and Michal Handzus pumped in goals during the first 8 minutes, 33 seconds, leaving the Eastern Conference-leading Senators, who were 11-1-1 in their 13 previous games, too stunned to recover.

This is how the Eagles plan to shut up 69,065 hostile fans at the Superdome Sunday. They are going to run the ball, stuff it down the gullet of New Orleans' vaunted defense, jam it in there so nicely there will be this big, nasty chain reaction that would go something like this: The Saints' four all-pro linebackers would not blitz as often. Quarterback Randall Cunningham would have more time to throw the ball - and his receivers would have more time to get open. A flurry of points would be scored against a ball-control team that hates to play catch-up.

DOCK WORKERS hustle to unload Chilean fruit from two ships moored at the Tioga Marine Terminal on the Delaware River yesterday. A third ship also off-loaded its cargo at Tioga. Activity at the terminal gets into high gear around this time every year with the imported fruit season, which began this month and ends in June.

When earnings season kicks into high gear, there can be little time to look at anything beyond the top and bottom lines. The conference calls with financial analysts begin early in the day and run well after the U.S. markets have closed for the day. (Thank goodness for replays.) And when you've read one earnings news release, you've pretty much read them all. Only the numbers change. Thursday was definitely high gear. Sixty-three companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index released quarterly financial results, as did 12 companies with headquarters in the Philadelphia area.

After a slow start, St. Joseph's Prep hit high gear in a 22-5 second-quarter run and collected a 71-57 Catholic League boys' basketball win at Father Judge on Monday night. Judge took an eight-point lead into the second period before Prep's Stephen Vasturia scored 15 of his game-high 31 points in the second quarter, giving the Hawks, ranked No. 8 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, the lead for good. Vasturia also had 13 rebounds and four assists, and Gene Williams registered seven boards and five assists.

The Penn Relays annually present an abundance of sights, sounds, and smells throughout Franklin Field, plus a colorful collection of athletes and spectators who absolutely enjoy each other's company during the 36 or so hours of competition over three days. The carnival steps off for the 117th time Thursday with the college women's 400-meter hurdles and continues with about 20,000 contestants representing elementary schools, high schools, colleges, postgraduates, Olympic-caliber athletes, Special Olympics competitors, masters, and senior citizens.

What should have been a memorable first trip for Michael Brown to the U.S. Amateur, the pinnacle for those who play golf not for the money but for the love of the game, became a nightmare. Brown, of Cheltenham, and the other two members of his group each were assessed a 3-stroke penalty for slow play at the end of their opening round of medal competition Monday at the Home Course in Dupont, Wash. The penalty turned a solid even-par 72 into a 75 and dropped Brown from a tie for 28th to a tie for 99th place after the opening 18. Brown shot an 83 Tuesday at Chambers Bay, the site for match play, and finished in a tie for 212th as the field was cut to the low 64. "I was in a daze, in shock," the 37-year-old Brown said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

It was a "Wow!" moment - literally. As seventh grader Sidhartha Bhuyan turned a dial on the side of a digital microscope, the beating heart of a live daphnia, a tiny crustacean, pulsed into focus on a laptop computer screen. "Wow!" Bhuyan called out. "Awesome!" The reaction of the student at Arcola Intermediate School in Montgomery County's Methacton School District is the kind that makes a teacher's day and might jump-start a longer-term interest in science. The moment came courtesy of Science in Motion, a respected but often-imperiled mobile science program that brings expensive equipment and knowledgable instructors to schools around the state.

Once the playoffs started, the scoring hasn't stopped for the Downingtown West girls' soccer team. During the regular season, the Whippets possessed one of the area's most dangerous attacks, scoring at a clip of 3.7 goals per game en route to a 16-0-1 regular-season record. And in seven postseason matches, Downingtown West is scoring 3.4 goals per game. In three state playoff games, the Whippets have scored, respectively, five, four and five goals - the most recent a 5-0 shellacking of State College to earn a berth in the PIAA Class AAA girls' state championship game.

There's beauty in a spoke or a wheel, a banana seat or a set of handlebars. The challenge is finding it, and the artists in the seventh annual Bike Part Art Show have done just that. Imagine an elegant light fixture that, on closer look, is made of bike chains. Or a quirky garden sculpture that uses a brake set to make a face. There's jewelry from crocheted wire, sculptures infused with ball bearings, paintings that incorporate gears. "These artists see the beauty of bike parts as separate from something you can use on a bike," said Kate Duncan, who is coordinating the event.

UFC 101 is coming to Philadelphia on Saturday, and if that sounds like the name of an introductory course in mixed martial arts, it's purely coincidence. Yes, this is the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Philadelphia after 100 others elsewhere. In fact, the sport of mixed martial arts, which combines striking disciplines such as boxing, tae kwon do, and Muay Thai with jujitsu and other grappling techniques, became legal in Pennsylvania only this year. But the UFC is such a phenomenon that fans here already know enough to be exceedingly stoked up. The Wachovia Center is expected to sell more than 15,000 seats for UFC 101, which is headlined by a lightweight championship between B.J. Penn and Kenny Florian.

"Cash for Clunkers" won't single-handedly save the environment, rescue the beleaguered auto industry, or spare consumers from financial distress. But the new $1 billion federal program promises a little help in all three areas, a bit of political symbiosis that explains why the plan motored through Congress three weeks ago on the back of an Iraq war-funding bill. Once it gets rolling later this month, the program will offer incentives of $3,500 or $4,500 to those who buy or lease a more energy-efficient new vehicle.