John Gardner

19 yrs experience as a high school band director. 14 yrs as college adjunct faculty. 30+ yrs in the fundraising industry and 24 yrs as a small business owner. (Don't add all those up.). Experience in both the fundraising sales and education worlds give me a unique combination of perspectives in both. I love working with the youthful enthusiasm of today's teenage achievers and with those who work with them. Also 6yrs as proprietor of VirtualMusicOffice.com, which offers a wide variety of virtual services including web/blog design/hosting/managing, social media management (scheduling posts/tweets for maximum impact and brand enhancement) and small business consulting - specializing in school product fundraising.

Would you be worth this for a conversation?

Communication, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Social Media /

online bankingIn 2021, I signed up for a subscription to The Daily Wire, for two reasons:

  1. Gina Carano had been fired from Disney, and hired by Daily Wire. The subscription was a way to support both TDW and Gina.
  2. Candace Owens was hired by The Daily Wire.

Gina did her one movie (delayed into a second year of subscription due to the COVID mess), Terror on the Prairie. It was a good movie, well done, in that it could be filmed away from most population.

Not too long after her debut, Candace Owens hosted a TV show. At the end of every show, she moved her chair to show the nearly all white audience behind her and would answer 3-4 submitted questions that she did not see ahead of time.

At the end of her fourth show, she answered MY submission:

How do you think she answered?

She and her British (love the accent) husband were married on a Trump property in Charlottesville, Virginia. She was a huge supporter, but when she came out staunchly opposed to his vaccine support, asking him about it directly in an interview, there was at least a partial falling out. I am unclear of the current status.

Her audience-included TV show transitioned to a single presenter, sometimes with guests or even a panel. Candace and her husband are both devout Christians, but had very different stances on Protestant vs Catholic theology. In April, 2024, she converted to the Catholic Church. She featured him on a double podcast debate I thought was fascinating. Here is Part 1…

She had amazingly informative deep dives about George Foreman, Big Farma / Vaccines, and Black Lives Matter.

Candace and Kanye

Trouble started brewing when she appeared with her friend, Kanye, and in one of his shows, they wore “White Lives Matter” shirts.

Kanye posted some interpreted antisemitic tweets and Candace defended him. That put her at odds with the owners at The Daily Wire, who are Jewish.

The clashes continued until they recently parted company. She has been posting that, “I am free” and soliciting subscriptions and gifts to support her.

In a Youtube video, in giving the history of her experience, said,

“I am NOT anti-Israel, but I am also NOT anti-Palestianian.”

On 5/10/24, she tweeted about a new app. It said you could talk to her via text or video and get immediate responses. I downloaded the app, only to find out her “rates” are way over my head. She certainly has the right to charge and make money this way, it just takes me out of the communication loop. These pics are from the new app, which I will shortly delete from my phone.

She moved to Nashville to be near The Daily Wire. She and her husband have bought land, built a house, and have welcomed their second child into the world.

She will do well, and as long as I can afford to read or watch, I will.

Would you be worth this for a conversation? Read More »

PSA Check your canes

Leave a Comment / Personal experience /

Reposted as a safety reminder. My ‘stand-up’ cane fell over. I didn’t think much about it. But then I looked closer. Talk about a fall risk. I have replaced it….and know, now, that I need to check more frequently than 2 yrs.

Vibe cane tip
Bottoms are almost completely smooth. Also, posts are not supposed to pull apart.
Compare old to new

 

PSA Check your canes Read More »

Who is ethnically cleansing?

Communication, News and Happenings, Social Media /

For those who claim Israel is involved in ethnic cleansing …. or worse, consider these in comparison….. Jewish populations in 1948 and 2023. Here we go:

ARAB POPULATION IN ISRAEL
1948 156,000
2023 2,178,000

Jewish Population in Arab Countries – DECREASED 99.83%
Arab Population in Israel – INCREASED 1296.15%

Lebanon
1948 20,000
2023 100

Egypt
1948 75,000
2023 40

Syria
1948 40,000
2023 0

Yemen
1948 55,000
2023 50

Iraq
1948 150,000
2023 7

This is reposted. Looking for the source. Let me know if you have that — or better / more updated stats.

Who is ethnically cleansing? Read More »

Emma Kok and Voila

News and Happenings, Respect, Storytelling /
Voila, the performance that got 50M views and kicked off her career at age 15.

Emma Kok,  a 16-year-old singer from the Netherlands, has a chronic health condition – gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach), receiving nutrition through a feeding tube making  this presentation even more emotionally powerful as she sings about her dream.

The original video got 50Mhits. This one (below) includes the English translation on screen.

 

 

 

btw …. get a box of tissues. Knowing her story and hearing her voice (and seeing audience and orchestra members reactions), well, as one reviewer said, “This broke me.”

 

 

Once you watch the video, you will have several options to hear others react. This reaction is from a professional opera singer:

In this video, she talks about being bullied because of her nutrition bag and because of her delayed growth.

She is currently on a World Tour with Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra.

Emma Kok and Voila Read More »

Justice for Vivian

High Schools, News and Happenings /

I uncle was a policeman. My father was a fire fighter (Asst Chief)…. I was raised to respect our civil servants and I almost always do. Most of the time, when you watch video of a violent encounter, it starts with non-compliance and more toward the officer(s). But sometimes, officers go to far. That is the case here…..and, in this case, it is not this officer’s first time.

On the ground, arrested for failing to identify, you can see her id just a couple feet beyond where she landed.

Part of her arrest was for failing to provide id. She was trying to pull it from behind her school id on a lanyard. In the pic of her on the ground, yo can see her id just a few feet away.

The first video shows the violent removal. Prior to the release of the video, the town council was supporting the police officer and the prosecutor had set a trial date. Once the public saw it, all charges were dropped and officer was fired. In this report, you hear about this officer’s 10-day suspension where he worked last year because of his temper.

Flawed, but not worthy of dismissal.

Conclusion – officer fired. Statement by Vivian.

Justice for Vivian – all the videos

https://www.justiceforvivian.com/portfolio

Justice for Vivian Read More »

Genocide is NOT happening in Gaza

Communication, News and Happenings, Social Media /

Someone on another platform responded to my “I Stand With Israel” post with, “You stand for genocide”. That is such a gross misunderstanding AND misapplication of the term. By definition,

“Genocides are a deliberate destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups.”

That is NOT what is happening in Gaza.

I spent about 3 minutes looking up some “modern-era” genocides….. There is no comparison…..…

Modern-era Genocides

Rwandan (Hutus killing Tutsis)

April-July 1994 (@4 months)

800,000 killed

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serbs against Bosnian Muslims)

200,000 Muslims killed

2,000,000 refugees

Cambodia 19779 (after US left Vietnam)

1,700,000 “Purified”

China 1949

CCP party starved 27,000,000

The Holocaust

WWII

“The Final Solution”

Nazis killed @ 6,000,000 Jews

Japan invaded China

1937

Up to 600,000 in Nanking in 4 days

Raped 20,000 women, most of whom were then killed

Ukranian Genocide

1932-33 by Joseph Stalin

7,000,000

Armenian 1915-18

1,500,000 killed by the “Young Turk” government of the Ottoman Empire

Native Americans

56,000,000 over 100yrs (90% tribal populations)

From the river to the sea

Genocide is NOT happening in Gaza Read More »

Are Gifted and Talented programs racist?

Family, High Schools, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Repost, Respect, Teaching, Types of education /
Seattle Schools are closing its “Highly Capable Cohort” (Gifted & Talented) program because the claim is that too many of the participants are white or Asian…. “in an effort to make the program more equitable and to better serve all students, the district is phasing out highly capable cohort schools. In their place, SPS is offering a whole-classroom model where all students are in the same classroom and the teacher individualizes learning plans for each student.” Think about what that means for each classroom teacher.
Gifted and Talented
Our local schools had a GT program called “Project Challenge”, involving our sons …. until the system abruptly ended the program, leaving stranded students who were taking classes 2+yrs ahead of grade level. We fought the repercussions until we found an advocate who enabled one son to commute daily from middle to high school for math, to skip multiple years of Spanish and to take advanced classes at the university. Those programs are more common now, but they were not at the time we were involved. I wrote about it here: https://www.virtualmusicoffice.com/the-system-worked-for…/
We wrestled with teachers who wanted to use our sons as tutors (noble and helpful, but does not address their “special needs”) or to do individual study in the back of the classroom (like what could happen in a discipline situation).
We are seeing some of the results of closing most mental institutions and “mainstreaming”. How many tragedies are blamed on “mental health” issues? If people need help, let’s help.
And here’s another problem I have with the “too many whites and Asians” racist argument….. Which pro sports teams, such as NFL, NBA, MLB “mainstream” players to ensure they have a balance of ethnicities and abilities? No! We want to win, right? Olympic teams are not balanced per quotas. We want to win, right?
I won’t argue that DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), which sounds wonderful is the new AA (Affirmative Action), but it all seems so similar, aka fad trend of the era.
Yes, let’s work to benefit those with “special needs”, but special needs at both ends. Let’s NOT label people ‘insane’, but also, let’s not ignore them. We NEED GT graduates coming into our society, even if they are white or Asian.

Are Gifted and Talented programs racist? Read More »

Micromanagement

Assistant Directing, News and Happenings, Personal experience /
Save

I was a music teacher in the system from 2005-2020 (retired). This happened during that time.

The hs building has over 40 outside doors. Custodians check those doors every evening because there have been cases of someone leaving a stone in a door to keep it from locking, sometimes for innocent reasons, others not so.
There is one particular door used primarily by the instrumental, choral, theater, and special ed departments. Special Ed is rarely there after school hours, but there is almost always something going on with at least one of the other departments for after school and/or evening rehearsals.
A security check revealed that our area door remained “pinned” (unlocked) one evening after everyone left. That is definitely a mistake.
Instead of talking to, reprimanding, or even disciplining the staff mostly responsible for that door, an edict went out to over a hundred faculty and staff members (“all call” style) announcing,
“Effective immediately, pinning a door unlocked requires administrator approval.”
After trying to think of a way the music department could work with that, the decision was that I would be the one to request clarification.
I sent an email so the admin could think it through vs an immediate response. It went something like this:
“As we discuss compliance with your directive about pinning a door, we have two general scenario possibilities for which we would appreciate further advice or clarification, please. Would you prefer that each of our departments provide you with an exhaustive list of days and times we request approval for enabling entry (music store dealer, parents/staff coming to assist with props, meetings, rehearsals….., students for after school lessons or evening rehearsals, etc., – or that we contact you for each such incident as it comes up?”
What do you think the response/reaction might have been? Hint: I wasn’t fired.

Micromanagement Read More »

Color-coded Clarinet

High Schools, News and Happenings, Personal experience /

clarinetStudent transferred from another school. One of my band missions was to check the mechanics of clarinets to ensure the best chance at getting the right notes. Note that some students come into hs playing the same horn they’ve had for 3-4yrs…. Sometimes they are fighting the horn.

Of course, most parentals would never drive a car four years without ever checking the tire pressure or changing the oil. But maintaining a clarinet? I actually had a parent ask me once, “Isn’t this the one you told us to buy?”

Anyway, this clarinet was especially intriguing. Why colored tape? The explanation was the director taught “color-coding”. Guess what I did.

Color-coded Clarinet Read More »