Music

This is the time of year Cody Hanna lives for.  "This is it," says Hanna outside his Clearwater home.  For Cody, it's all about lights and each year he has a goal.  "Get bigger. More lights, way more lights. " At 13, Cody formed a passion early. "He's liked lights since he was a baby," says mom Michelle. "When he was seven he decided he was going to start decorating his room. " His display now goes beyond a few extension cords.  Cody spends all year planning and saving for a light display on the outside of his home.  It includes music broadcast through an FM signal all run by a laptop Cody saved up to buy.  "It's cool.

By Dave Roberts (WICHITA, Kan.) While it's not happening in Canada, most of the United States is getting pounded by winter weather. But here in Wichita, we were given a little bit of a break. Several people got to spend Friday afternoon in the park. "We don't get frost bite and you don't have to go inside every once in awhile and then go back out and put on all this heavy stuff," Allie Kruse enthused. "Oh! Everybody needs sun!" said Cathy Clausen. "We need vitamin D today!

Linda Cooper knows how to entertain almost any child.  When she's at work as a school bus monitor for children with special needs, she relies on her phone to help her out. "I have a couple of autistic kids that if they start getting agitated, I'll put on some mellow music and it just calms them right back down,” Linda said. Linda's phone works just as long as she does. "My phone is pretty much being used from 6:30 in the morning until about 4:30 in the afternoon,” Linda said.

Most cars now come with Bluetooth technology built in so that you can talk hands-free. Though talking while driving is not ideal, sometimes it can't be avoided. Now there are lots of Bluetooth devices made for older cars. Consumer Reports just checked out four inexpensive ones that cost $60 or less. There were some pluses and minuses. The GoGroove FlexSmart X2 proved easy to install because it's wireless. But the audio quality wasn't great. There was a lot of background noise.

This month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the coming of the iCloud. A free service launching this fall, which will be essentially a replacement for its surprisingly mediocre MobileMe. Jobs says that the iCloud "just works," but until it actually gets out of beta, we won't know for sure. But, I've been playing around with the beta version of it and so far I'm extremely impressed. Essentially, here's how it works. For music: Let's say that a few years ago you bought Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" record from the iTunes store.

It's pretty incredible the impact music can have on our moods. Well someone had the idea to amplify that connection. Recently a co-worker told me about a website where you set the mood and in turn the website picks not just music to match it but also pictures.  SO I thought I'd try it out. It's not bad…I think the thing that would make it better would be if I could run my own music library through the “mood maker.” On an upside, you are...

Running has become a space of release, motivation and strength for me. Last week I was running in Riverside (my favorite place to run) and apparently set my iPod on repeat 1. Not a joke…..I listened to the same song for almost an hour and a half.  This is something I've done before, but never this long! I found my musical mediation! When working on my jazz degree at Wichita State University I learned how important it is to really take time to listen to an entire jazz album to get the full effect.

I registered for the Color Me Rad 5K in early March and pictured a warm, May morning decked out in a white t-shirt & shorts - a perfect blank slate to fill with color. Flash forward 6 weeks, boy was I wrong! With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees and light showers I donned a white turtleneck, undershirt & running pants. My running buddy Emily was smart and wore gloves. I refuse to wear them in May. The race begins with a pep rally; loud music and color cascade over participants.

See teacher Travis Hale talk about the Commercial Music Class as Southeast High School.

By Michael Schwanke (WICHITA, Kan.) Monday night the Wichita School Board shared results from its "Board Night Out" event last week.  About 1,000 community members participated in the event. Board members wanted feedback from the community before any cuts are made.  Community members used the districts "value list" to tell the board what they value most. Overall, the most popular was music.  It ranked at the top of the middle school list, and was among the most popular for elementary and high schools.