New Age

Opinions run deep and divergent about "New Age" or "Whole Earth" music. Critics of this studied folk-classical-jazz blend lump it all together as "mood music for the 1980s," or "audio valium. " Supporters of this musical amalgam celebrate its humanistic bent, its ability not only to entertain, but also to soothe away the worries of the everyday world. To their thinking, new age music is more lyrical than a poem by Browning, as organic as tofu, as spiritual as Zen meditation.

"All new-age artists will claim to be 'not really new-age.' " - Musician magazine's "fearless predictions" for 1987 No one likes it, but there it is: new-age. Paul Winter, the saxophonist who's been making mellow for 25 years, is new- age. So's a Swiss harp player by the name of Andreas Vollenweider. And so is Jean-Michel Jarre - French synthesizer whiz and son of film composer Maurice Jarre - even though Jean-Michel's electronic excursions predate the term "new-age. " And so, definitely, is Windham Hill Records, the little company that guitarist William Ackerman built in his Palo Alto, Calif.

The taped music was all soft pings and pongs; the air inside the Garland of Letters bookstore was sweet with incense. Sheila Reynolds, who says she's a psychic, and Donna Proszynski were discussing Ralph Waldo Emerson's transcendental philosophy when a stranger approached to ask what drew them to the literature at Philadelphia's premier new-age bookshop. "I think the message of the new age is that we're all special," said Proszynski, who owns a similar bookstore in New Hope.

From a 400-acre campus tucked away in the Pocono foothills, spiritual leader Sri Swami Rama presided over a veritable New Age conglomerate. Founded in 1971, Rama's Himalayan International Institute of Yoga, Science and Philosophy in Honesdale offered holistic medicine retreats for weekenders, ran a publishing house, and opened branches in seven U.S. cities. Rama, who died in India last year, attracted a following of full-time institute residents - many of them young women - who saw him as a saintly figure.

REMEMBER THE old song about matchmakers making matches? Finding finds? Catching catches? If, this Valentine's Day, you find yourself single, seeking - and thinking about hiring someone to set you up - forget those lyrics. Forget about old-world matchmakers. Things have changed a lot since that guy fiddled on a roof. Today's paid-for couple-creators are no longer simple setter-uppers. They're full-service pros with the savvy of Bravo's "Millionaire Matchmaker" Patti Stanger and the cunning of VH1's "Tough Love" host Steve Ward.

AS THE DEBATE over the rescue - or ruin - of Social Security continues to rage, one idea has emerged that actually has some merit. Republican Sen. Church Hagel is recommending that the retirement age when people can start collecting full Social Security benefits be raised from 67 to 68 starting in the year 2023. Democrats and others have jumped on the suggestion, especially because Hagel has tied his suggestion to establishing private accounts. But setting aside that idea, raising the age of retirement is probably long overdue.

Just a few years ago, Chester County wasn't ready for the New Age ideas of Hemitra Crecraft and Sue King. Ideas like New Age dance parties, complete with a gem elixir bar. "We called it Barefoot Boogie," Crecraft said. "It was a complete bomb. " And Goddess Gatherings, "celebrations in nature of the great goddesses. " "That was way ahead of its time too," Crecraft said. Then the two Main Line women stumbled onto Indian sweat lodge ceremonies. Finally, they had something people were willing to pay for. Their classes on crystal healing, flower essences and the power of color also were hits.

For Pat Fenske and millions of other people across the globe, "hell" ended yesterday - and the Harmonic Convergence began. Shortly before dawn, Fenske and more than 100 other participants in the 14th annual Human Unity Conference gathered on the 27th floor of the Franklin Plaza to reflect, in part, on the ramifications of the convergence. Human Unity participants were specifically celebrating the end of hell, as predicted by the Aztecs. According to legend, Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god of wisdom and peace, set up a calendar beginning in 843 A.D. that called for 22 periods of 52 years each - 13 periods of heaven followed by nine periods of hell.

A Shout Toward Noon (Private Music ), the new album by the great guitarist Leo Kottke, takes a crucial risk: Kottke slows the pace and tone of his acoustic, mostly solo instrumentals to achieve the dreamy buzz of the so- called New Age music that is popular now. But the wonderful thing about Kottke's slight yet significant stylistic shift is that he pulls it off - he easily avoids the lulling, Muzak-like quality that infects most...

The rocks are spread out in Kaylene Johnson's living room. Colorful rocks. Big rocks. Pebbles. Hundreds of them. It looks like child's mischief, the innocent joy of youth unencumbered by the order imposed by adults. The Western order. For Johnson, 45, mother of two, it makes perfect sense. The order imposed by the Western world is not relevant in her household. Listen to the rocks. After all, this is someone who replaced the Waterford crystal collection in her china cabinet with a bunch of rocks she dug up in Warminster.

REMEMBER THE old song about matchmakers making matches? Finding finds? Catching catches? If, this Valentine's Day, you find yourself single, seeking - and thinking about hiring someone to set you up - forget those lyrics. Forget about old-world matchmakers. Things have changed a lot since that guy fiddled on a roof. Today's paid-for couple-creators are no longer simple setter-uppers. They're full-service pros with the savvy of Bravo's "Millionaire Matchmaker" Patti Stanger and the cunning of VH1's "Tough Love" host Steve Ward.

TBILISI, Georgia - The rattling olive Audi A4 with two middle-aged smugglers attracted little attention as it slithered through this former Soviet republic one morning in February, speeding toward the Turkish border. In the trunk, the smugglers carried a silver case filled with iridium-192. They nurtured vague grand plans to sell the radioactive material to a Muslim buyer for $5 million. Such a black-market sale could have but one likely purpose - construction of a so-called dirty bomb.

  At NewAge Industries, what goes on under the roof has been the priority at the plastic-tubing manufacturer for 57 years. On Wednesday, all attention will be on the roof itself. There, a one-megawatt solar system consisting of 4,082 panels - a monster in terms of rooftop photovoltaic arrays and believed to be the biggest of its kind in Bucks County - will be the toast of local and state dignitaries, green-business advocates, and NewAge's 100 employees. For a plant that uses two megawatts of power a year to churn out tubing with widespread applicability - from pharmaceutical laboratories to McDonald's milk-shake machines - the solar project represents a serious cost-savings opportunity.

I read in the paper that nowadays, the companies that take school pictures will retouch the photos to fix the kids' cowlicks, missing front teeth, and freckles. In my view, this is not progress. Reportedly, 10 percent of parents request such retouching. The other 90 percent love their children. Apparently, some parents like to see their children as they should be, instead of how they are. Or maybe they're Photoshopaholics. I can't think of a better message a parent can send a child than, "You're almost good enough!"

WASHINGTON - Iran is set to cross a new nuclear threshold, but it's one the Obama administration isn't worried about. On Saturday, technicians are scheduled to begin loading low-enriched uranium fuel supplied by Russia into Iran's first civilian nuclear reactor, and if all goes smoothly, the Bushehr plant could start producing electricity under U.N. monitoring late this year or early next. Bushehr embodies what the administration and many experts consider an ideal solution to the Iranian nuclear dispute: Tehran benefits from the peaceful nuclear energy to which it is entitled by international law, but the fuel comes from elsewhere, negating Iran's need to make its own via enrichment, a process that also can produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear bombs.

Dignity is not a priority in Grown Ups . A reunion comedy in both concept (school buddies come together 30 years later) and cast ( Saturday Night Live confreres Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade), the film drifts along on a stream of humiliation jokes - physical, emotional, sexual, hairpiece-ial. This should come as no surprise given the involvement of the SNL alums - joined, as the fifth of the friends, by The King of Queens ' Kevin James.

Many educators and education theorists seem to have bought into the notion that the early 21st century marks some kind of watershed in the history of the field. We do have some powerful new technologies to bring to bear on the learning process. And the daunting societal and environmental challenges that seem to lie ahead may demand some rethinking of our approach to educating our youth. On the other hand, our tendency to overestimate our importance as molders of young minds and our limited capacity to see into the future should suggest a cautious approach to these heralds of a new age. One pedagogical pundit, Marc Prensky, believes that the brains of today's teenagers have already been physically altered by their use of computer-chip-driven devices of all sorts.

The Tampa Bay Rays are in the World Series because of . . . Bruce Springsteen? On Sunday morning, hours before the most important game in Rays' history, manager Joe Maddon took a long ride on his mountain bike with the Rolling Stones and the Four Tops blaring on the iPod. At Tropicana Field, Maddon made a bold choice. He switched the music to the Boss while filling out the lineup card for Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. The Rays, who had never won more than 70 games in their 11-year history before this season, crashed into the World Series with a 3-1 victory against Boston.

It's the baby boomerang. You want a child, but can't conceive. Or you don't want one, and unintentionally get pregnant. Or, as in Baby Mama - like Juno, Knocked Up and Waitress, a droll comedy where pregnancy is the situation - you can't carry to term, so you hire a surrogate mother who can. These days, everyone outsources. The farce stars Tina Fey as Kate, a buttoned-up Philadelphia business exec with baby fever, and her erstwhile Saturday Night Live partner Amy Poehler as Angie, an unzipped Joisey girl.