The Salina Journal
The Salina Central Jazz Combo will perform in the outdoor public plaza next to Ad Astra Books & Coffee House, near the corner of N. Santa Fe Ave. and W. Ash St., at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 7 as part of the Salina Arts & Humanities First Friday.
The musical group is made of up eight Salina Central High School students and is organized by Ben Rohrer, with rehearsals run by the students. This year’s leader is senior bassist Nelson Gutsch, who will attend Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the fall.
The Salina Central combo had its beginnings in 1995-96. A small group of SCHS students, Grant Mathews (drums), Mike Weber (keyboard), Stephen Rogers (saxophone) and Michael Hamilton (bass) started rehearsing in Mathews’ basement. They wound up getting several gigs during their high-school years. The combo evolved into a student group that rehearsed at Central before school, and has existed ever since.
What is Lyle the Crocodile about?
Megan Coberly, director of the production and the education director at Salina Community Theatre, said that as a former elementary school teacher, she was familiar with Weber’s book “Lyle Lyle Crocodile,” which she called “such a cute story.”
“I loved the message (of the book), so when I saw there was a musical, I jumped right on it,” she said.
“Lyle the Crocodile” is the story of how a walking, dancing crocodile changes the hearts and minds of a community in New York City. When Lyle pops up in a bathtub in the Primm household, he quickly settles in and becomes a part of their family. But not everyone in Lyle’s orbit is as accepting of Lyle as the Primm family, especially the aptly named Mr. Grumps.
Sunflower Biennial exhibition opens this week
By Gary Demuth
Layna Kinnaird believes her painting about imperfection is full of imperfections.
That’s why the Salina Central High School junior was surprised that her painting “What’s Wrong with Your Skin?” was chosen as one of the representative pieces in the 2021 Sunflower Biennial exhibition opening this week at the Salina Art Center.
“I’m really excited, but I wasn’t expecting this one to get in,” she said. “It’s not one of my favorites because I wanted to spend a little more time with it.”
In other words, Kinnaird is being a perfectionist about a painting that celebrates imperfection. Her painting, which she created with gouache paint and Swarovski crystals, is a portrait of an African American man with vitiligo, a skin disease that creates white blotches on the skin.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association announced that Gary Harmon, longtime debate and speech coach at Kansas Wesleyan University, has been selected for the 2020-21 National Federation of State High School Association s Outstanding Speech/Debate/Theatre Educator Award.
Harmon has been teaching and coaching since 1965 and will be retiring from Kansas Wesleyan University at the conclusion of this school year.
Starting a career in education
Harmon said his career in education has exceeded five decades, beginning in the spring of 1965 at Hutchinson Central Junior High School, where he taught English, was the pep club sponsor and directed the all-school play.
Entering Headley’s Clothing was all it took for the proprietor and namesake to take charge of any man’s duds.
If you were a regular customer, Glenn Headley could recall sizes and preferences often reciting names of his kinfolk, too and he had plenty of fashion trends to promote.
Threads were his life, right up until he closed the business in Kraft Manor, 1829 S. Ninth, on the last day of 2016. He’d owned and operated the business since 1977.
Care and love for friends and community endured past the end of his retail career, spanning more than a half century.