Samantha Wille has been creating art in some form since childhood. She says that she’s always had a passion for color and anything bright and cherry, that drawing and painting just came naturally. It’s a trait that runs in the family. Her maternal grandmother and aunt are artists as well as her cousin from her father’s side. With the passing of her mother in March 2021, Wille lost interest in art for a while, but then realized her mom would have hated that.
On Jan. 26, 2023, the Real Men Sing vocal workshop at Bethany College brought over 400 young men, grades 5-12, from 34 schools across Kansas. These young men spent the day working with music professionals in one of three groups. The High School Choir, conducted by Paul Neal, Associate Professor of Music at Berry College performed “Leave Her Johnny”, arranged by Daniel Lynch, and “Tuba”, arranged by Michael Marrett. The Changing Voices Choir, conducted by Greg Bontrager, Buhler High School vocal music teacher, and Nicholas Griggs, McPherson High School vocal teacher performed “Vive L’Amour” arranged by Bobby Siltman, and “Wade in the Water” arranged by Dan Davidson. The Unchanged Voice Choir, conducted by Alex Underwood, Hays High School choir teacher, performed “Pie Jesu” by Mary Lynn Lightfoot and “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers arranged by Robert T. Gibson. The final performance was “God Bless America” performed by all choirs combined.
Poet Jason Ryberg of Kansas City, MO, will return for the month of February as Artist-in Residence at the Red Barn Studio Museum, 212 S. Main St., Lindsborg. Ryberg is the author of eighteen books of poetry, six screenplays, a few short stories, a box full of folders, notebooks, and scraps of paper that could one day be (loosely) construed as a novel, and a couple of angry letters to various magazine and newspaper editors. His latest collection of poems is The Great American Pyramid Scheme (co-authored with W.E. Leathem, Tim Tarkelly, and Mack Thorn, OAC Books, 2022).
Seventeen Sterling College Theatre students and two professors attended the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival last week in Des Moines, IA. The regional festival attracted over 1300 participants from colleges/universities from seven midwestern states.
Dear Amy: I ended a long and terrible marriage with an addict a couple of years ago. The marriage was over for a long time but because of debt and the pandemic, it took us a lot longer than I wanted for the marriage to finally be done.
Q: I’ve been reading about zombie cells and how, as we get older, they start to make us age faster and faster. How can I make sure they don’t ruin my health as I get older? -- Dwayne R., Falls Church, Virginia A: You packed a lot into that question. So, first let me say that having a RealAge of 40 at age 60 is absolutely achievable, and soon, being able to be 40 at age 90 will be more than 80% likely. The full scope of what it takes to do that (the science of self-engineering) is in my book “The Great Age Reboot.” But here, I can tackle your question about zombie cells.
DEAR DR. ROACH: For over 20 years, I have experienced difficulty with getting enough sleep at night. I typically get between five and six hours of sleep per night. I fall asleep quickly at about 10 p.m., but wake up between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., unable to fall back asleep.
Dear Amy: I believe that my 45-year-old husband is having a midlife crisis, abusing drugs, cheating - or possibly all three. We have been married for 15 years.
DEAR DR. ROACH: I recently got a blood transfusion, and I've never had the COVID vaccine.
Dear Amy: I recently did DNA ancestry testing, hoping to locate relatives of my father, who died when I was very young. To my surprise I found out that I have a niece.