Greiner Middle School parent Rebecca Ordinario lives near Jesuit, but she drives her seventh-grader to school in Oak Cliff every day.

“Up here in North Dallas land, where I live, no one has heard of Greiner,” Ordinario says.

That’s a problem. Last year, DISD nearly closed Greiner’s Exploratory Arts Academy, which is known for its music program. Parents rallied to save it, but it is just funded. The academy’s budget includes teacher salaries and nothing else.

“There’s no budget for costumes, instruments … I don’t think the pianos have been tuned in years,” Ordinario says. “There’s just no money.”

Ordinario started thinking about how Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts is so successful. What is their “secret?” she wondered. So she met with the PTA president there and found that much of Booker T.’s fundraising and publicity is due to its advisory committee.

So Ordinario is putting together an advisory committee for Greiner. Goals for the committee are not in writing yet, but they will include fundraising, applying for grants, gaining publicity and securing public performances for Greiner Arts Academy students.

Two women have committed to serve on the board so far. One is an education lawyer who has experience with grant writing, and the other is Adrienne Jackson, a lawyer who is the wife of Sylvan|Thirty developer Brent Jackson.

Anyone interested in serving on the board should contact Ordinario: rordinario@me.com or 214.418.9043.

By the way, Ordinario’s son, Cameron, is the kid who last year was inspired to write the song “Please Save Greiner”:

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff recently unveiled a new vision, mission statement and creed. Read them on the UU Oak Cliff website.

The church recently screened “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” and there are a couple of events coming up.

The first meeting of the “Oak Cliff Ethicurians” is at noon Sunday, Jan. 15. They will “discuss and act upon how to gain access to healthy, tasty and budget-conscious food in Oak Cliff.” The group will cover topics from recipes to labor concerns with coffee growers, says they church’s publicist, Kelley O’Conan.

A concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21 will feature activist and composer Jim Scott. Tickets are $10.

The band hall at Bishop Dunne High School was dedicated to former band director Bob Parsons last month.

Art curators Cynthia Mulcahy and Leila Grothe put on Square Dance: A Community Project at the Trinity River Audubon Center on Saturday night, Nov. 12. Oak Cliff editor Rachel Stone was there and captured the crowd in do-si-do mode. Click here to read Rachel’s post about the hipster square dance … more

Dale Evans would be proud. Oak Cliff gals Cynthia Mulcahy and Leila Grothe drew about 200 people to the Trinity River Audubon Center Saturday night for a square dance.

The dance was free, including snacks, drinks and live music from the Quebe Sisters Band, thanks in part to and Idea Fund grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. As this video shows, you really can’t square dance without smiling.

Bishop Dunne High School dedicated its band hall to former beloved band director Bob Parsons on Tuesday morning. Advocate photo editor Turk was there to capture the dedication.

Jimmie Vaughan might have grown up in Dallas, but he was raised in rhythm and blues. According to his official bio, local radio stations, such as KNOX and XERB, ignited his passion for music. After sustaining a football injury at 13, Vaughan received his first guitar to keep him company on the long road to recovery. Two years later, The Swinging Pendulums — his first band — began playing the city’s nightclubs. Another year, another band, and Vaughan — as part of The Chessman — opened for Jimi Hendrix.

Forty-five years have passed since Jimmie Vaughan gave a live performance in his hometown of Oak Cliff. Around 7:30 p.m. Thursday evening, that particular drought will end at The Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard. For three hours, and $45, attendees will be offered a glimpse into the musician’s life, the life he had in Oak Cliff and the life he has had on the country’s stage.

The evening show will begin with an on-stage conversation with Vaughan, as well as a few old classmates and band members, about his time in Oak Cliff with his younger brother, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. The conversation will be followed by a concert with Vaughan’s Tilt-A-Whirl Band.

While the VIP tickets are sold out, general admission is still available. Go online to purchase tickets.

Also, in anticipation of the event, the Oak Cliff Cultural Center is featuring The Vaughan Brothers in Dallas: A Photo Exhibit through Thursday. Admission is free.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? As the saying goes, “Practice, practice, practice.”

Well, the 35-student varsity orchestra at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts practiced plenty, and they received an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in May 2012.

What they need to get to Carnegie Hall now is money, money, money. The whole trip is expected to cost about $70,000.

To raise funds for airfare, hotel rooms and other costs, orchestra members are gigging. Their first performance will be at the Kessler Theater Friday, Nov. 4, when a string quartet opens for Edie Brickell and Heavy Make Up. Brickell is from Oak Cliff and an arts magnet graduate.

The students have several other gigs scheduled, including playing the lobby of the Myerson Symphony Center on Saturday, Nov. 12.

Donations can be made online to the school’s music guild or by snail mail to BTW Music Guild, P.O. Box 130831, Dallas, Texas 75313.

Blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan performs at the Texas Theatre Nov. 10 as part of the theater’s “The Soul of Oak Cliff” series, presented by Kriby Warnock’s Trans-Pecos Productions.

The Oak Cliff native’s first ever live performance was with his band The Pendulums at a Sunset Bisonettes winter dance in 1966. A couple of years later, he joined The Chessmen. Since then, he has gained international fame as a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds and the older brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Jimmie Vaughan is bringing his band, Tilt-A-Whirl, to Oak Cliff for one night only, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10.

Tickets evidently are not available yet, but 95 VIP tickets will be available for $95 each. The Texas Theatre seats 600.

In fall 1938, Harry Barton traveled from his home state of Iowa to secure his position as the new band director of Boude Storey Junior High School. He knew no one in Oak Cliff, but one of the young majorettes at Storey, Bettye McGee, quickly determined that the handsome young man with the wavy hair would be perfect for her older sister, Eloise.