Upbeat

When the players of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra took the stage of the Music Center at Strathmore Thursday night for a summer festival concert, they gave every appearance of normality, after what was probably the most abnormal week of their professional lives. Then again, the opening piece on the program just happened to be called Facade, so you never know. The orchestra's heavily publicized objection to naming a new music director, and the decision by the BSO board of directors to proceed with the historic appointment of Marin Alsop to that post, must have taken a severe toll on morale in the ensemble.

WASHINGTON -- Morris K. Udall has been trying to stand up lately. Relatives say the former basketball player will shift his long legs toward the edge of his hospital bed and wait for nurses to help so he won't fall.Parkinson's disease has affected Mr. Udall's balance enough that he cannot realistically expect to support himself.Still, he tries.A year after a fall bruised his brain, the good news is that Mr. Udall is still trying. The 69-year-old Arizona congressional legend receives scores of visitors, listens to classical music and, on occasion, leaves the Veterans Affairs Medical Center to spend a day in his suburban Virginia home.

For its 40th anniversary, the Shriver Hall Concert Series programmed a typically classy roster of soloists and chamber ensembles and a high-profile piano festival for extra celebration. Then, shortly before the 2005-2006 season started in October, the organization faced an unexpected hurdle - the departure of its popular and successful executive director, Sel Kardan. The resolution of that last little matter was likewise unexpected. "We had a fairly large search and some good applicants for the job," says Jephta Drachman, president of the Shriver board of directors, "but no one had unanimous support.

Miguel Tejada's happiness was one of the Orioles' biggest concerns heading into spring training last year, but judging by comments the star shortstop made yesterday, it is no longer an issue. He is "extremely content with the Orioles," Tejada told the Associated Press in his native Dominican Republic, where he is playing winter ball to get some at-bats before reporting to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for spring training next month. "I don't think anymore about those things that they have to do to sign players," Tejada said.

Here's a sampling of the wisdom gleaned from Success '93, which brought its entrepreneurial-evangelical road show to the Baltimore Arena yesterday:* Chocolate Easter bunnies with hollow ears are the scourge of the '90s. (Willard Scott, "Today" show weatherman and featured speaker.)* Most high school honor students are virgins. (Zig Ziglar, the headliner for Success '93, whose many, many audiotapes include "Raising Positive Children in a Negative World.")* "And" is better than "but" if you want to win someone over.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Last year the margin of defeat in Navy's season opener against Virginia was 53 points. Yesterday, against the same team, it was 38.But two lopsided shutout losses in two straight season openers have apparently had two different effects on the Navy football team.When the final gun sounded yesterday, Navy was a 38-0 loser to Virginia before a crowd of 38,900 at Scott Stadium. But unlike last year, when the Midshipmen were demoralized, yesterday it was an upbeat Navy coach George Chaump and an upbeat group of players who spoke of good things to come.

A bitter last-minute loss to arch-rival Army last December robbed Navy of a chance to finish with its first winning football season in 12 years and "left a scar on my heart," said head coach Charlie Weatherbie, who has regained his unbridled optimism while preparing to greet 40 lettermen for the opening of spring practice tomorrow.Weatherbie, who finished 5-6 in his first season, took a last look back on last year's frustrating ending, when Army marched 99 yards against the clock for the winning touchdown in a 14-13 victory.

A couple of workers from Alex. Brown were smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk outside the firm's South Street headquarters when a woman in a dark suit walked by."Do you have any idea how much money that man just made selling this firm?" she said to the smokers, stretching her arms out wide. "Thi-i-i-s much!""I have no idea who that was," one worker said as the woman disappeared into the lunch-hour crowd.Friends or strangers, many who hit the sunny streets of downtown Baltimore yesterday were chattering about the pending merger of Baltimore's historic Alex.

Washington - Seconds before he won the title of national Republican chairman, Michael S. Steele turned to his sister, Monica, who was standing at his side in the crowded Capital Hilton ballroom, and grinned. "We're going to have some fun," he told her. A sunny, magnetic personality helped Steele capture the job, and that upbeat image may be his most potent weapon in motivating a beleaguered party organization. Steele brings badly needed diversity to a national party that, according to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, just had its worst showing among minority voters in 150 years.

Unless they're satisfied simply preaching to the already converted, Christian pop artists have to balance delivering their message with entertaining their audiences. Most fail by either completely selling out to commercial concerns or by sounding as if they're selling something -- namely, God.But even if they're subtle and talented, Christian performers aren't really artists unless they transcend their specific cause. At its best, art tries to answer unanswerable questions, not relay pat solutions.