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Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon is set in Northern California, where Berkeley and Oakland meet. It’s 2004, and business partners Archy and Nat have just learned that a former NFL quarterback plans to open a music superstore in their shared hometown, placing their used record store in jeopardy. Midwife-partner wives, philandering husbands, and never-before-mentioned children add to the drama.

This month the Tallgrass Film Festival will celebrate 10 years in the community.

It all started back in 2003 when Tim Gruver left Los Angeles to return to his hometown and start a film festival. First step: assemble a team.

“We were really good friends and he called me up and said do you want to come to Wichita to produce this film festival and I was like, ‘I don’t know what that means, but OK, that sounds great,‘“ says Lela Meadow-Connor.

When you work in a restaurant, sometimes the only thing you want to eat is something that you, yourself, did not prepare. You could be surrounded by delicious food all day long and desire none of it. I know the feeling well.

Sometimes I’ll go out and get pizza or tacos for my staff, just for a change of pace. I did that yesterday, when I went out to check on my friends at MMM Sandwiches, a food truck serving… sandwiches. Really good sandwiches. Sandwiches we didn’t make ourselves. I ordered one of everything and got an appetizer just for kicks.

Despite a strong hand in the development of the practice, Kansas does not offer a license to art therapists. But the art therapy faculty at Emporia State University are trying to change that.

In 2001 attempt by the Kansas Art Therapy Association to get support for a licensure bill failed.

Legislators told the Kansas Art Therapy Association they needed 100 board certified art therapists practicing in the state for them to consider licensure.

But, says Emporia State University faculty member Libby Schmanke, they just can’t seem to get close to that number.

Wichita State University Contemporary Art History Professor Dr. Royce Smith has organized and curated a small, yet potent show titled, Response to Provocation: Living Memoirs of the Culture Wars. Installed in the McKnight Art Center at WSU, this is a mature-themed show that draws connections between the Culture Wars of the 1990’s and today’s on-going social and cultural debates. The University serves as the ideal environment to have these productive discussions.

Whether Beethoven or beat boxers, musicians have come to rely on one tool to help them keep time.

The metronome was invented by a friend of Beethoven’s, Johann Maelzel, in 1815. It is used in music to set a tempo, measured in Beats Per Minute, and traditionally has a range of 40 - 208 BPM, roughly the extremes of the human heart-rate. BPM correlates to the human body in other ways, too.

The state of Kansas doesn’t offer a license to art therapists, and as a result there are not many, especially in the south-central part of the state. Here is a profile of Ian Gingrich-Gaylord, one of the few art therapists in the area.

The storm shelter below the main offices on the Prairie View campus in Newton is cold and dark but brightly decorated.

It serves a dual purpose – storm shelter and art-making workshop.

It’s kind of a nice metaphor; the storm shelter says Ian Gingrich-Gaylord, Prairie View’s art therapist as he pushes open the heavy door.

Music therapy is having a positive effect on some residents at Wichita's Larksfield Place. The older adults are showing signs of increased motivation and improved communication.

Meg Beck has spent nearly 30 years as a music therapist engaging adults and children with the use of music in hospitals, schools and senior facilities.

Inside the health care center at Larksfield Place, about 10 wheelchair-bound residents between the ages of 70 and 100 sit in a semi- circle. Some suffer from dementia and impaired vision.

See the full list of Mary Jane Teall Award winners.

It’s been said that politics and religion don’t mix but both are present on area stages in the coming weeks.

Hey, the referees are back! Which is a mighty big deal in some circles.  Personally, I’m more of a baseball fan. Football – not so much.

I don’t even understand how they can call that weird oblong object with shoelaces on it a “ball.” Aren’t balls round? Shouldn’t footballs be called blimps? Why didn’t they call the game “footblimp” instead of pretending they actually play it with a ball?