Metallica marching band winners for Marching Music Day

Happy Marching Music Day! This year, I'm celebrating For Whom the Band Tolls: The Winners!

Last year, we challenged marching bands at all collegiate levels to come up with the most exciting, unique, and impressive performances of our songs. The submissions are in, we’ve watched the videos, and we’re thrilled to announce that the University of South Carolina has taken the top prize in the 2025 Collegiate Edition of the annual competition. Congratulations Gamecocks! A huge thank you to all the incredible bands who participated this year.

The winners across seven categories listed below will receive more than $165,000 in total prizes. In an exciting twist on our second For Whom The Band Tolls competition, this year’s first-place Division 1 winner will have the opportunity to record a Metallica song and the EA SPORTS™ College Football Theme Song, both to be included in the EA SPORTS™ College Football video game!

The victors in each category will receive instruments and equipment for their programs provided by us with the support of our generous sponsors, including Sweetwater, TAMA, Hal Leonard, KHS America, and more.

And the winners of the Metallica Marching Band Competition Collegiate Edition are…

Follow over the jump for the complete shows of the winners.

'SNL' opens with a Trump victory party after the South Carolina Republican Primary

I wondered what I would do today at the end of PBS Terra explains 'How An Ancient Ocean Shaped US History'.

Stay tuned for the final Sunday entertainment feature of February. I could still compile a highlights post of tonight's Saturday Night Live, but I'll see if I'm feeling it tomorrow.

I'm feeling it. Watch Trump Victory Party Cold Open.

Senators Tim Scott, James Risch, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio (Devon Walker, Mikey Day, James Austin Johnson, Marcello Hernandez) discuss Donald Trump over a meal.

It's enough to make me feel a bit sorry for the actual politicians, as much as I've made fun of them, particularly Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio. Then I remember what they did for party unity and discipline — party over country — and I don't feel so sorry for them anymore.

The cold open was ostensibly a victory celebration of Donald Trump winning the 2024 South Carolina Republican Primary, so it's time to watch Weekend Update: Trump Wins South Carolina Primary, Biden Raises $56 Million For Campaign.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the Alabama Supreme Court ruling frozen embryos are children.

I was wondering if the South Carolina Republican Primary would be called early enough for it to be the lead story on Weekend Update. I shouldn't have been concerned; it was called just after 9:00 P.M. EST. On the one hand, that's not great for Trump; he's not getting the numbers Joe Biden got. I'm recycling my comment from George Santos sues Jimmy Kimmel and Trump sells sneakers for the other hand.

Nikki Haley is staying in for the same reasons Liz Cheney is opposing Trump: "As I wrote in July 2022, 'In Liz Cheney's case, she'd like her pre-2015 Republican Party back. I doubt she'll get it any time soon, so she'll settle for damaging TFG instead. I wish her luck.' She's certainly doing her best." Too bad her best won't be good enough to win the nomination.

But it might be enough to damage Trump. I hope she's happy with that. I know I am.

Weekend Update continued with Zombie Deer Disease, Red Lobster’s Endless Lobster Experience.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like a study showing women benefit from exercise more than men.

"Zombie deer disease" is formally known as Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease. That's as bad, if not worse, than COVID-19 in deer. Cooking deactivates viruses, but not prions. Yikes!

The joke about putting Romeo and Juliet where no one would see it on Paramount+ is a funny version of a whine I wrote six years ago and repeated the next year: "'The Good Fight'...only seems to earn Emmy nominations for its music. At least the musicians are watching the show; other branches of the Television Academy don't seem to be watching." Something similar has been going on with the Star Trek shows, as the hair and makeup artists are nominating it, including two Emmy nominations for Star Trek: Picard last year and five nominations for Star Trek: Picard in 2020 including two for makeup, one for hairstyling, and two for sound. At least the the Saturn Awards committees were watching and nominated the franchise for a bunch of awards and people like me voted for them. Let's see if the next season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fares any better with the entertainment professionals.

SNL hasn't uploaded the interviews from Weekend Update yet, so I'm ending this post with Trump Sneakers.

Things turn around for a struggling man (Shane Gillis) when he's gifted a pair of magical sneakers from Donald Trump.

"White Men Can Trump." Unfortunately, a lot of us can. Sigh. Also, SNL couldn't resist a "Biden is old" joke. Double sigh.

Enough topical humor. Stay tuned for a more evergreen post tomorrow.

Marching music for the 2024 South Carolina Primary — Carolina Crown, South Carolina, Clemson, and South Carolina State

As I told my readers yesterday, "Stay tuned for this year's edition of Marching music for the South Carolina Primary — Carolina Crown and South Carolina State University." This is a continuation of my marching music for presidential primaries series — songs to listen and watch as my readers and I wait for results for results from the South Carolina Primary.

As I wrote four years ago, "South Carolina has one competitive drum corps, but it's an excellent one, Carolina Crown," so I begin with Carolina Crown | #dci2022 | Right Here, Right Now from Drum Corps International (DCI).

Fort Mill, South Carolina's Carolina Crown perform a segment from the corps' #DCI2022 production, "Right Here, Right Now," during the 2022 DCI World Championships hosted August 12-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

This show featured audience participation through a smartphone app, which not only resembles modern political campaigns, but also is one of the themes of Double the insight on Carolina Crown's "Right Here, Right Now" ?? | Inside Drum Corps Ep. 8.

Carolina Crown designers Rick Subel & Molly Favret discuss all things Crown 2022 in Episode 8 of Inside Drum Corps!!

I enjoyed Subel and Favret's descriptions, which helped me understand what they were trying to convey in the show. May the voters and candidates also know the feeling of being "Right Here, Right Now" tonight.

Like the Spartans, Carolina Crown never left their home state in 2021 because of the pandemic, but they did hold a camp and performed for the home town audience at the end of it. Here are two clips of that performance the corps uploaded to its YouTube channel, beginning with IN MY MIND | Toccata Andromeda.

'Toccata Andromeda' Music by Paul Halley, Michael Klesch, Thom Hannum, Jim Ancona, Andrew Monteiro, Travis Peterman
• Video Production by BOX5 Media and Michelle Morales

Now the second clip, IN MY MIND | Carpe Diem & Seize the Day.

We lucky few, who seize these moments.
----
Carpe Diem & Seize The Day
Music by Peter Graham, Michael Klesch, Thom [Ha]nnum, Jim Ancona, Andrew Montiero, Travis Peterman, Paul Nalesnik • Video Production by Box 5 Media and Michelle Morales

May the voters and candidates seize the day!

I close the drum corps portion of this post with Molly Favret's (yes, the same woman in the second video, making this an "official" unofficial upload) recording of Carolina Crown 2023 | DCI World Championship Finals | The Round Table: Echoes of Camelot.


South Carolina is doing its part to elect a president, not a king, but the theme of leadership still fits.

Follow over the jump for the marching band portion of this post.

FiveThirtyEight asks 'Who is Nikki Haley?'

While The Former Guy declared his candidacy last November, just after the 2022 midterm election, within a week of the last episode of "The Good Fight," which ended with TFG declaring he was running, and Joe Biden already making a case for a second term, the 2024 finally began in earnest as Nikki Haley declared her candidacy for the Republican nomination for President. For all of you who ask "Nikki who?" FiveThirtyEight has an answer in Who Is Nikki Haley, Trump's First Major Challenger For The GOP Presidential Nomination?

Nikki Haley just announced that she'll be running for president in 2024. She's the first woman of color to seek the Republican nomination.

I've only mentioned Haley once, in Stephen Colbert and FiveThirtyEight recap the first night of the Republican National Convention.

Despite the attempts by Nikki Haley (not "Hayley") and Rick Scott to make the party and convention seem normal and non-threatening, Kimberly Guilfoyle managed to set the tone that viewers on the other side of the aisle found believable. If the Republicans wanted to get the Fox News viewers fired up, she was the one to do it. If they wanted to convince persuadable voters to vote Republicans, she wasn't.

The flip side of this would be neither Haley nor Scott, both from South Carolina, would be the ones to fire up the Republican base. Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog disposed of the chances of both Scott and Haley this week, Scott in YOU MUST HAVE THESE PEOPLE CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER REPUBLICAN PARTY and Haley in CALLING IT NOW: NIKKI HALEY WON'T EVEN BE A RUNNING MATE. I'm glad he wrote those posts so I didn't have to. Besides, Steve M. has this blog on his blogroll and I've been getting a lot of visitors from it. It's about time I thanked him and sent some of my readers his way.

I might get around to suggesting original drinks for Haley before the Republican debates, but right now I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling the South Carolina Swizzle Cocktail - The Proper Pour with Charlotte Voisey - Small Screen, which I used for Lindsey Graham.

Inspired by the delicious produce of South Carolina and Georgia, Charlotte created the South Carolina Swizzle Cocktail to celebrate one of her favorite regions of the United States. Served in a julep style, this refreshing libation is perfect as a summer sipper.

Remember, great cocktails start with measuring responsibly.
Recipe:
1 1/2 parts Hendrick's Gin - Watch The Unusual Times: http://bit.ly/hendricks_reservebar
1/2 part Bitter Truth Apricot Liqueur
3/4 part fresh lime juice
3/4 part simple syrup
1/4 part Yellow Chartreuse

Instructions:
Shake ingredients with ice.
Strain over crushed ice into hurricane or tall glass.
Garnish with a mint sprig.

Now I'm wondering if it's worth creating a label for her. Darling Nikki, anyone?

Democrats are trying to rearrange the dates of their primaries and caucuses to make them more representative, a 'Groundhog Day' story

Groundhog Day reminded me not only of the Bill Murray movie, but also of John Oliver on primaries and caucuses for Groundhog Day, where the comedian and his writers advocated for reforms of the Presidential primary and caucus system to make it more small-d democratic and representative. That's been happening since 2016 as Wikipedia described in its entry about the 2020 Democratic primaries and caucuses.

On August 25, 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) members passed reforms to the Democratic Party's primary process in order to increase participation[25] and ensure transparency.[26] State parties are encouraged to use a government-run primary whenever available and increase the accessibility of their primary through same-day or automatic registration and same-day party switching. Caucuses are required to have absentee voting, or to otherwise allow those who cannot participate in person to be included.[25]

Independent of the results of the primaries and caucuses, the Democratic Party, from its group of party leaders and elected officials, also appointed 771[a] unpledged delegates (superdelegates) to participate in its national convention.

In contrast to all previous election cycles since superdelegates were introduced in 1984, superdelegates will no longer have the right to cast decisive votes on the convention's first ballot for the presidential nomination. They will be allowed to cast non-decisive votes if a candidate has clinched the nomination before the first ballot, or decisive votes on subsequent ballots in a contested convention.[27][28] In that case, the number of votes required shall increase to a majority of pledged and superdelegates combined. Superdelegates are not precluded from publicly endorsing a candidate before the convention.

There were also a number of changes to the process of nomination at the state level. A decline in the number of caucuses occurred after 2016, with Democrats in Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Washington all switching from various forms of caucuses to primaries (with Hawaii, Kansas, and North Dakota switching to party-run "firehouse primaries"). This has resulted in the lowest number of caucuses in the Democratic Party's recent history, with only three states (Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming) and four territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, and U.S. Virgin Islands) using them. In addition, six states were approved in 2019 by the DNC to use ranked-choice voting in the primaries: Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, and Wyoming for all voters; Iowa and Nevada for absentee voters.[29] Rather than eliminating candidates until a single winner is chosen, voters' choices would be reallocated until all remaining candidates have at least 15%, the threshold to receive delegates to the convention.[30]

Several states which did not use paper ballots widely in 2016 and 2018, adopted them for the 2020 primary and general elections,[31] to minimize potential interference in vote tallies, a concern raised by intelligence officials,[32] election officials[33] and the public.[34] The move to paper ballots enabled audits to start where they had not been possible before, and in 2020 about half the states audit samples of primary ballots to measure accuracy of the reported results.[35] Audits of caucus results depend on party rules, and the Iowa Democratic party investigated inaccuracies in precinct reports, resolved enough to be sure the delegate allocations were correct, and decided it did not have authority or time to correct all errors.

I think all these reforms helped, but 2020 revealed that still more needed to be done, as the Iowa Caucuses, already being considered as "a relic of the past," failed to produce a clear winner, as the results took almost a full month to tabulate fully and correctly, resulting in Bernie Sanders earning a plurality of votes, but Pete Buttigieg winning the most delegates. No wonder both of them claimed victory.

Worse yet, neither of them earned the Democratic nomination for President, despite them essentially tying in the New Hampshire Primary. That distinction went to Joe Biden.

Despite his un[der]performance, Biden would go on to win the nomination, becoming the first candidate to do so without winning Iowa since Bill Clinton in 1992. Additionally, with Biden defeating incumbent president Donald Trump in the general election, he became the first candidate to do so without finishing in the top 3 in Iowa since the conception of the caucuses in 1972.

On top of which, Biden showed that he didn't need New Hampshire, either.

Biden became the first Democratic candidate since Bill Clinton, and the third ever Democratic candidate,[c] to win the nomination without carrying either Iowa or New Hampshire, the first two states on the primary/caucus calendar.

On top of which, many in the Democratic Party have pointed out how unrepresentative both Iowa and New Hampshire are of the current Democratic electorate, so the party is trying to rearrange its primary calendar to reflect its voters. PBS NewsHour reported on that process in Democratic Party battles over rearranging its presidential primary calendar, uploaded, appropriately enough, on Groundhog Day.

Democrats will soon vote to rearrange their calendar for the presidential primaries in 2024 and beyond and it could have major ramifications for the party. The plan moves South Carolina to the top of the calendar and would be the first time in more than 50 years that Iowa and New Hampshire won’t be the first caucuses and primary. Lisa Desjardins reports.

Both guests agreed that the Democratic primary calendar should be rearranged to make it reflect the party's voters. They just disagree that the first state should be South Carolina, which has a history of voting more for moderates than progressives. FiveThirtyEight examined that possibility in What Would It Mean If SC Voted First In The Democratic Primary.

In Part 2 of this week’s FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, the crew looks at how the Democratic Party's effort to rearrange its presidential primary calendar is going and discusses the impact this reassortment could have on candidate selection.

I agree with the general sense of the panel; neither New Hampshire nor Georgia will comply with the proposed changes. New Hampshire has the first primary of the Presidential country by state law and I think the Granite State won't move it. Also, these are changes that benefit the Democratic Party but not the Republican Party. The calendar in place up to 2020 suits them just fine, especially since Iowa and New Hampshire do reflect their voters. They have no motivation to go along with this reform.

The one state that is going along with the Democratic Party's plan is Michigan. CBS Detroit reported Michigan moves for early slot for 2024 presidential primary two days ago.

Michigan House Democrats voted Tuesday to move the state's presidential primary to the fourth week of February and become a part of a new group of states slated to lead off the Democratic party's presidential primary starting next year.

Michigan Radio reported on the next step: Whitmer signs law to make Michigan early primary state; still not clear if effective in time for 2024.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a new law Wednesday that would bump Michigan up in the presidential primary process. Whitmer said the law would give the state’s voters a stronger voice in choosing the president, by counting their votes earlier.

But Republican leaders said their party’s rules mean that it could actually disenfranchise their primary voters. And, in either case, it’s still not clear if the law will take effect in time for the 2024 election.
...
The bill to move up the primary passed the state Legislature on a partisan vote, with Republicans objecting because they said it would hurt voters in their own primary. The Republican National Committee rules say most states cannot hold primary votes before March 1.
...
Under the state’s constitution, in order for a law to take immediate effect, it has to pass with a two-thirds majority in the Legislature. Because Republicans held out, SB 13 didn’t cross the threshold. That means it will now take effect 90 days after the end of this year’s legislative session.

To meet that deadline, Democratic leaders would have to adjourn the legislature no later than November 29. Currently, legislators are scheduled to be in session through the first few weeks of December.

So Michigan did its part, thanks to Democrats taking over control of the legislature and keeping control of the executive branch in Michigan, but it still might not take effect in time for 2024. It probably won't matter so long as Biden runs again. Just the same, stay tuned.

Samantha Bee explains the importance of voting for U.S. Senators

In the same episode where Samantha Bee asked her viewers to Power The Polls, she explained the importance of down-ballot races, specifically the U.S. Senate, in a monologue that her show uploaded in two parts on YouTube. Here is Part 1.

It’s easy to blame Trump for the current hellish state we find ourselves in. But much like his business “success”, when it comes to enacting harmful legislation, Trump couldn't have done it alone. November is the perfect time to hold his accomplices accountable.

Since this was uploaded four weeks ago, the FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecast shows that Jaime Harrison has a 23% chance of winning to Lindsey Graham's 77%. That's not as good as Bee made it out to be, but it's better than one would have expected a few months ago. FiveThirtyEight's Perry Bacon Jr. explains how that happened in How Did Lindsey Graham End Up In Such A Close Race? Click on the link to read his answers to the question.

The situation is reversed in Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly is leading Martha McSally 79% to 21%. FiveThirtyEight's Clare Malone explains what is happening in Arizona Is The Democrats’ Purple Splotch In The Sunbelt.

Bee continued describing the state of the race in the more visible Senate elections in Part 2.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from horror movies, it’s to always expect the worst. So when it comes to the 2020 election, voting Trump out of office won’t be enough to save our country. We have to also get rid of the monsters that lurk down the ballot!

Bee and her Emmy-winning writers were right about that attack ad on Sara Gideon; it looks like something her campaign could have produced as a positive ad. It may actually be helping the Democratic challenger. A few days ago, the Maine Senate election was the closest one at FiveThirtyEight, with Collins marginally ahead. Now, it's the third closest, with Gideon having a 63% probability of winning.

TBS aired this episode of Bee's show before Cal Cunningham's sexting scandal broke or she would have mentioned it. Despite that, the polls haven't moved much, which FiveThirtyEight's Geoffrey Skelley tried to explain in Despite A Sexting Scandal, Democrat Cal Cunningham Is Favored In North Carolina’s Senate Race, noting "On Oct. 2, Cunningham had a 67 in 100 shot of winning; today, Cunningham has a 67 in 100 chance, according to the Deluxe version of FiveThirtyEight’s Senate forecast." Right now, it's 66%. Still, not much movement considering the potential from a sex scandal, however mild.

Other close contests for the U.S. Senate Bee didn't mention are happening in Iowa, Georgia, Montana, Kansas, and Alaska. For those, I recommend reading Why Democratic Senate Candidates Are Competitive In Red States Like Alaska, Kansas And Montana and Will Georgia Turn Blue?, both on FiveThirtyEight. Maybe Bee and her writers will find enough material for a monologue about these contests in the next three weeks. Stay tuned.

Marching music for the South Carolina Primary — Carolina Crown and South Carolina State University

I told my readers to "stay tuned" at the end of BBC News explains why we need leap years by writing "today is the South Carolina Primary, so I plan on doing for it what I already did for Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, share some marching music for my readers to watch and listen while they are waiting for the results."  Here goes.

South Carolina has one competitive drum corps, but it's an excellent one, Carolina Crown, so I begin with the show of theirs most on-topic for an election year, 2012's For The Common Good.



2012 Carolina Crown - For The Common Good
May all the candidates be focused on the common good.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the musical selections, which include 2016 and 2019 Carolina Crown and 2019 South Carolina State University.