Ocean Blue

Imagine yourself on a 17th-century ocean voyage between Europe and America. Who might your traveling companions be? If you grab a knob and lift up a panel in the Philadelphia Maritime Museum's daffy new exhibit, you'll get an answer of sorts: a group of rubber roaches and assorted other insect pests. The Columbus-related show (what isn't these days?) is titled "Encounters and Exchanges: The Delaware Valley in the Age of Exploration" and is nicely displayed on the museum's second floor.

In a classic misnomer, the tour that brought three budding rock acts - the Mighty Lemon Drops, the Ocean Blue and John Wesley Harding - to a cram-packed Theater of Living Arts on Friday was called "The Laughter Tour. " Apart from a comically earnest performance from Hershey's the Ocean Blue, there was nothing lighthearted about the show. It began with a disappointment. Calling himself a victim of "American red tape," John Wesley Harding appeared on stage only long enough to tell a few jokes (maybe this was the laughter part?

That most engaging of underground pop groups, the dBs, put on a stirring show at the Chestnut Cabaret Tuesday night. But to do so, the band had to transcend some inherent performance liabilities. Guitarist-singer Peter Holsapple took to the stage wearing the same gaudy Elvis T-shirt he wears on the cover of the dBs' new album, The Sound of Music. With his disheveled long hair and glasses, Holsapple looked like a scholarly Neil Young. The quality of his singing never rose above the serviceable.

The members of Riverside, a Lancaster quartet newly signed to Sire Records, seem like sincere and pleasant guys. But they're pretty dull company for an evening. Despite the use of two electric guitars Sunday night at the Theater of Living Arts, there was little energy in Riverside's syrupy, Sixties-pop melodies. Vocalist Keith Kochan sings in a thin tenor intended to sound wistful, but it comes across as emotionally flat. Guitarist Kenneth Dai is the group's most accomplished musician, but he over-relies on the ringing guitar championed by U2's the Edge.

LITTLE NIPPER ENTERS WORLD WITH A REAL TOUCH OF CLASS Some fifth graders got a break on a test and a lesson in the miracle of birth at the same time. It was all courtesy of their teacher, Janice Burke, who interrupted a math test to give birth on the classroom floor. Ryan Patrick Burke arrived Tuesday morning shortly after paramedics reached his mother's classroom in Mesa, Ariz. Burke said she had discounted labor pains earlier because the baby wasn't due for a month.

SENSELESS SHOPPING Why do men visit supermarkets more often than women - 2.4 times a week, compared with 2.2 times a week? Simple: Men are witless, says one male shopper, Dick Rodgers of Silver Spring, Md. Rodgers' explanation: " 'Better stop at the store,' says self. 'I used the last of the sugar this morning. Also might as well get milk, O.J. and frozen waffles.' Since this is only four items, it's rarely on a written list. And if it is on a list, the list is (a) left on the desk, (b)

A clump of fried rice falls off a plate. Just as it hits the red tile floor, a woman in a blue apron appears, broom and dust pan in hand, to sweep it up. And then, just as suddenly, she disappears. Sitting nearby are Brandi Feingold, 16, and Lisa Fobare, 13, self- proclaimed "mall rats. " Since school let out last month, they've practically moved into New Jersey's Cherry Hill Mall. And where they rest between shopping sprees is the food court, known officially as The Picnic. If it can be eaten, one of the 15 food bars probably serves it. "One day you're in the mood for a taco," said Brandi.

A Rose is a Rose is a Flower: A Tuesday night poetry series debuts tonight at 8 p.m. at The Blushing Zebra, the coffeehouse at 7167 Germantown Ave. The series will emphasize readings by struggling local poets. Admission is $3. Tomorrow night, Veronica Underwood, a jazz vocalist, will perform at the Zebra. The show is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3. Life is a Cabaret: Two bands - the db's and Ocean Blue - perform tonight at 9 p.m. at the Chestnut Cabaret, 3801 Chestnut. Tickets are $7. Plies to Stardom: Limber up folks.

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. - Jesus, to his disciples Wangari Maathai will be the first to tell you. It was faith that turned her little tree initiative into a national movement that mobilized more than 100,000 women to plant 30 million trees across Kenya; faith that gave her the courage to...

Don Johnson, skipper of a shrimp trawler? Don Johnson, hunkered over a cup o' joe at the corner diner in a two-horse South Carolina town? Don Johnson, crying? This is Paradise, the bucolic Southern weeper about an emotionally crippled couple whose lives are put back on track by the summer-long visit of a little boy. This is what's also called a career about-face: D.J., as friends and hotel doormen call him, dropping the tough-guy act, the cowboy act, the cop act, to, like, act. "At first, I thought Don Johnson?"

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. - Jesus, to his disciples Wangari Maathai will be the first to tell you. It was faith that turned her little tree initiative into a national movement that mobilized more than 100,000 women to plant 30 million trees across Kenya; faith that gave her the courage to...

LITTLE NIPPER ENTERS WORLD WITH A REAL TOUCH OF CLASS Some fifth graders got a break on a test and a lesson in the miracle of birth at the same time. It was all courtesy of their teacher, Janice Burke, who interrupted a math test to give birth on the classroom floor. Ryan Patrick Burke arrived Tuesday morning shortly after paramedics reached his mother's classroom in Mesa, Ariz. Burke said she had discounted labor pains earlier because the baby wasn't due for a month.

The members of Riverside, a Lancaster quartet newly signed to Sire Records, seem like sincere and pleasant guys. But they're pretty dull company for an evening. Despite the use of two electric guitars Sunday night at the Theater of Living Arts, there was little energy in Riverside's syrupy, Sixties-pop melodies. Vocalist Keith Kochan sings in a thin tenor intended to sound wistful, but it comes across as emotionally flat. Guitarist Kenneth Dai is the group's most accomplished musician, but he over-relies on the ringing guitar championed by U2's the Edge.

Imagine yourself on a 17th-century ocean voyage between Europe and America. Who might your traveling companions be? If you grab a knob and lift up a panel in the Philadelphia Maritime Museum's daffy new exhibit, you'll get an answer of sorts: a group of rubber roaches and assorted other insect pests. The Columbus-related show (what isn't these days?) is titled "Encounters and Exchanges: The Delaware Valley in the Age of Exploration" and is nicely displayed on the museum's second floor.

SENSELESS SHOPPING Why do men visit supermarkets more often than women - 2.4 times a week, compared with 2.2 times a week? Simple: Men are witless, says one male shopper, Dick Rodgers of Silver Spring, Md. Rodgers' explanation: " 'Better stop at the store,' says self. 'I used the last of the sugar this morning. Also might as well get milk, O.J. and frozen waffles.' Since this is only four items, it's rarely on a written list. And if it is on a list, the list is (a) left on the desk, (b)

Don Johnson, skipper of a shrimp trawler? Don Johnson, hunkered over a cup o' joe at the corner diner in a two-horse South Carolina town? Don Johnson, crying? This is Paradise, the bucolic Southern weeper about an emotionally crippled couple whose lives are put back on track by the summer-long visit of a little boy. This is what's also called a career about-face: D.J., as friends and hotel doormen call him, dropping the tough-guy act, the cowboy act, the cop act, to, like, act. "At first, I thought Don Johnson?"

In a classic misnomer, the tour that brought three budding rock acts - the Mighty Lemon Drops, the Ocean Blue and John Wesley Harding - to a cram-packed Theater of Living Arts on Friday was called "The Laughter Tour. " Apart from a comically earnest performance from Hershey's the Ocean Blue, there was nothing lighthearted about the show. It began with a disappointment. Calling himself a victim of "American red tape," John Wesley Harding appeared on stage only long enough to tell a few jokes (maybe this was the laughter part?

Local ship lovers want to make sure the city's Ambassador to the High Seas doesn't get caught with its masts down when it follows in the wake of another pretty fair sailor a few years from now. The Gazela Philadelphia, the largest and oldest ship of its kind still sailing, is one of more than 100 boats from around the world that will participate in a 1992 tall ship extravaganza in Spain to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of...

South Philadelphia Congressman Thomas M. Foglietta wants to rename Delaware Avenue after an Italian sailor. Well, not just any Italian sailor. Foglietta envisions the once rutted, railroad-tracked industrial corridor along the Delaware River as Christopher Columbus Boulevard, honoring the navigator known to all fourth-graders as the man who "discovered" America. Foglietta, who launched the idea at a press conference yesterday, said a name change bill could go before City Council sometime this fall.

That most engaging of underground pop groups, the dBs, put on a stirring show at the Chestnut Cabaret Tuesday night. But to do so, the band had to transcend some inherent performance liabilities. Guitarist-singer Peter Holsapple took to the stage wearing the same gaudy Elvis T-shirt he wears on the cover of the dBs' new album, The Sound of Music. With his disheveled long hair and glasses, Holsapple looked like a scholarly Neil Young. The quality of his singing never rose above the serviceable.