'Andor' earns a Hugo nomination for Revenge of the Sixth on Wayback Wednesday

Today's celebration of Revenge of the Sixth, the dark side of Star Wars Day, hearkens back to 'The Mehdi Hasan Show' examines the politics of ‘Andor’ for Revenge of the Sixth and 'Andor' vs. 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' and 'Severance' for Best Science Fiction Television Series at the Saturn Awards. Star Wars News on Instagram reported, "Andor Season 2 has been nominated for the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form! It’s the only TV series nominated in a category that otherwise features only movies." Here are the rest of the nominees in this category.


Andor isn't likely to win, as it's not also nominated for the The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation. Instead, I think the three Hugo nominees also nominated for the equivalent Nebula Award, KPop Demon Hunters, Sinners, and Superman, are most likely to win. Of the three, I think Sinners is the favorite.

Andor can take some consolation from Andor wins the BAFTA for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects | BAFTA TV Craft Awards.

Andor wins the BAFTA for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards with Samsung OLED.

Presented by Chris Chung.

Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for the nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form and Best Game or Interactive Work plus a retrospective of the top entertainment entries from the back catalog, excluding those about the Emmy Awards.

Morgan State at the Rose Parade and Alcorn State at the Macy's Parade for MLK Day

Happy MLK Day! For this year's version of JSU's 'Sonic Boom of the South' at the Rose Parade for MLK Day, I'm featuring the HBCU bands in the 2026 Rose Parade and the 2025 Macy's Parade. I begin with Smash Time Productions' Morgan State University M3 @ Disney Land Parade 2025.


Smash Time knows how to select a preview image, which is why this video came first.

Luis of Music213 recorded the next two videos, beginning with Morgan State University "Magnificent Marching Machine" - 2026 Pasadena Bandfest.

From Baltimore, Maryland
The Magnificent Marching Machine of Morgan State University performing their show at the 45th Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest on Monday, December 29, 2025.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) bands (and former MEAC bands, like North Carolina A&T, which is now a member of the Coastal Athletic Conference), have more drum corps influence than the bands in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) like Alcorn State, and someone like me can see it in their field shows, although they are still recognizably HBCU showbands.

Next, Morgan State University "Magnificent Marching Machine" - 2026 Pasadena Rose Parade from Music213.

The Magnificent Marching Machine of Morgan State University performing at the 137th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on a very wet Thursday, January 1, 2026.

It's unusual that it rains on the Rose Parade, but it didn't dampen the performers' spirits!

Now travel back in time to watch Band Central's Alcorn State University Marching Band Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025, which combines original coverage with broadcast TV clips.

Alcorn State University Marching Band Performing in Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025

NBC cut them off just a little too soon. Darn. Still, what power!

I close with my own video, Alcorn State University Marching Band in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

#shorts Alcorn State University Marching Band in Macy's #Thanksgiving Day Parade 11/27/2025 #MacysParade #NYC
https://www.twitch.tv/alldaynyc

AllDayNYC on Twitch approves and so do I!

That's a wrap for the holiday. Stay tuned for another tale of the Retail Apocalypse followed by one more post recognizing diversity among movie winners, the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes won by KPop Demon Hunters.

Spartans at the Macy's Parade for a drum corps Christmas

I promised "a follow-up to WMUR covers the Spartans in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for a drum corps Christmas," so I'm sharing Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade~NYC~2025~Spartans Drum and Bugle Corp[s]~NYCParadelife.


That was worth it for the preview image alone. Now for what most people remember from the Macy's Parade, the performance on NBC: Macy's Final Performance.

The Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps performs in the 2025 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Yes, we need a a little Christmas, right this very minute!

I close with two shorts from my YouTube channel that I clipped from Twitch. The first is #alldaynyc on #Twitch | Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 11/27/2025, who caught them as they stepped off.

#shorts Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps Macy's #Thanksgiving Day Parade playing "Jingle Bells" 11/27/2025 #MacysParade #NYC
https://www.twitch.tv/alldaynyc

AllDayNYC didn't care for "Jingle Bells" — he had some downright mean things to say about another band that played it — but he liked the service dog.

The last is #dinomitetwins on #twitch | Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 11/27/2025.

Spartans #DrumandBugleCorps playing "Jingle Bells" at Macy's #Thanksgiving Day #Parade 11/27/2025 #macysparade #drumcorps #nyc
https://www.twitch.tv/dinomitetwins

Ali and Lexi, the Dinomite Twins, were much nicer and they liked the service dog, too.

That's a wrap for today's drum corps holiday celebration. Stay tuned for Festivus. Another airing of grievances, anyone?

'The Last of Us' wins Best Adaptation at The Game Awards

 I'm doing something new and slightly different for this week's Sunday entertainment feature, winners at The Game Awards, beginning with a category that recognizes movies and television, Best Adaptation. Watch as The Last of Us: Season 2 Wins Best Adaptation at The Game Awards 2025.

The Last of Us: Season 2 wins Best Adaptation at The Game Awards 2025. Live from Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 11th 2025. Celebrate the best and see what's next in video games at The Game Awards 2025.

Neil Druckmann couldn't resist referring to Netflix agreeing to buy Warner Brothers, followed by a hostile takeover bid by Paramount. I know I'll be blogging about that in the future.

When I first looked at the list of nominees, I would have picked A Minecraft Movie, which I called "dumb fun." That was before I found out that The Last of Us won this award in 2023 for season 1. Once I learned that, I was not surprised it repeated. Electorates matter.

By the way, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films hasn't yet announced their nominees for the 53rd Saturn Awards, which means my vote for Best Horror TV Series is likely to change. This July, I wrote, "I also expect to be voting for The Last of Us, even though I'm down on Season 2." No longer. Stranger Things 5 debuted last month, so it should now be eligible, and I plan on voting for it now.

Follow over the jump for the video game winners.

Local news covers the marching bands in the 2025 Macy's Parade

As I wrote yesterday, I'm breaking this year's edition of Local news coverage of marching bands in the 2024 Macy's Parade for Thanksgiving into two parts. Part one was WMUR covers the Spartans in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Part two consists of the marching bands, beginning with Fox 5 New York reporting Alcorn State University’s Sounds of Dynomite: Marching band in Thanksgiving Day Parade.

FOX 5 NY's Kendall Green speaks with some members of Alcorn State University’s marching band "Sounds of Dynomite."

Yes, I'm sharing the bands in alphabetical order as listed on Macy's website with the last two swapped for a narrative. I'm glad it resulted in an HBCU band first. Also, I'm glad I got a non-NBC affiliate because of what I wrote last year.

By the way, notice how many of these segments are from local NBC affiliates. As I first wrote in CNN defends Big Bird after Ted Cruz calls one of the character's tweets 'Propaganda,' a pandemic update, "my readers should keep that relationship in mind when watching the clip above. It's not just news value that's driving it."

In this case, it is news value.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the bands in tomorrow's parade.

'Dune: Part Two' vs. 'Wicked' and 'Star Trek' vs. 'Doctor Who' among Hugo Award nominees for dramatic presentation

As I promised yesterday, I'm covering the Hugo Award nominees for dramatic presentations and video games as the first Sunday entertainment feature of August. Here are the nominees for those categories from Twitter/X and the Hugo Awards website.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Dune: Part Two, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures)
• Flow, screenplay by Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaža, directed by Gints Zilbalodis (Dream Well Studio)
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, screenplay by George Miller and Nick Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Warner Bros. Pictures)
• I Saw the TV Glow, screenplay by Jane Schoenbrun, directed by Jane Schoenbrun (Fruit Tree / Smudge Films / A24)
• Wicked, screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, directed by Jon M. Chu (Universal Pictures)
• The Wild Robot, screenplay by Chris Sanders and Peter Brown, directed by Chris Sanders (DreamWorks Animation)

I'm going to be a good environmentalist and recycle from 'Dune: Part Two' at the Critics Choice Super Awards: "Picking the winner is trivial; it will be Dune: Part Two." It's won the Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation over I Saw the TV Glow and Wicked, which answers my gripe about Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie at the Critics Choice Super Awards that "This could have been a more interesting contest if the Critics Choice Association (CCA) had nominated Wicked." At least some of the writers will vote/have voted for the Hugo Award, too. Electorates matter, and I'm not expecting a different fan choice to win like last year.

[T]he Hugo Awards staged a revenge of the nerds by awarding Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves the rocket trophy. This reminded me of the Saturn Awards voters voting for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over Barbie for Best Fantasy Film. I guess Barbie was too much of a normie movie for the nerds' and geeks' tastes.

I think the fans will vote for Dune: Part Two.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Fallout: “The Beginning” written by Gursimran Sandhu, directed by Wayne Che Yip (Amazon Prime Video)
• Agatha All Along: “Death’s Hand in Mine” written by Gia King & Cameron Squires, directed by Jac Schaeffer (Marvel, Disney+)
• Doctor Who: “Dot and Bubble” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams (BBC, Disney+)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: “Fissure Quest” created by Mike McMahan and written by Lauren McGuire based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Brandon Williams (CBS Eye Animation Productions for Paramount+)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: “The New Next Generation” created and written by Mike McMahan, based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry, directed by Megan Lloyd (CBS Eye Animation Productions for Paramount+)
• Doctor Who: “73 Yards” written by Russell T Davies, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams (BBC, Disney+)

This category poses more of a challenge. While Doctor Who “Dot and Bubble” and all of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 earned nominations at the Nebula Awards, since both franchises have two nominees, they might suffer from vote splitting. If so, it will open the door for either Agatha All Along or Fallout, winners of Best Superhero Television Series and Best Science Fiction Television Series at the Saturn Awards, respectively, to walk through and claim the rocket trophy. If so, I think it will be Fallout. If not, then I predict it will be the Doctor Who episode, “Dot and Bubble.”

Best Game or Interactive Work

• Caves of Qud, co-creators Brian Bucklew and Jason Grinblat; contributors Nick DeCapua, Corey Frang, Craig Hamilton, Autumn McDonell, Bastia Rosen, Caelyn Sandel, Samuel Wilson (Freehold Games); sound design A Shell in the Pit; publisher Kitfox Games
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard produced by BioWare
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom produced by Nintendo
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes produced by Simogo
• Tactical Breach Wizards developed by Suspicious Developments
• 1000xRESIST developed by sunset visitor 斜陽過客, published by Fellow Traveller

1000xRESIST was the only game nominated at the Hugo Awards also nominated at the Nebula Awards, but I don't think that will sway the fans because they probably weren't playing it. Instead, they'll vote for a game they actually played. Based on watching streamers on Twitch, I think the most played games in this field were Dragon Age: The Veilguard and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Between those two, I'd vote for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as popular and fun as the Zelda games are.

I'm making an observation on Best Related Work before I conclude this entry. I suspect r/Fantasy’s 2024 Bingo Reading Challenge will win, but I'm rooting for “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel” by Jenny Nicholson. It's her second Hugo nomination, and it examines an experiment that apparently succeeded critically but definitely failed commercially. Since Disney is in business to make money, it closed.

That's a wrap for today's Sunday entertainment entry. I plan on following through with "something...historical" tomorrow by embedding Bright Sun Films video on TGI Fridays bankruptcy. Stay tuned for the Retail Apocalypse!

No PSAs among nominees for Outstanding Commercial plus winners for Outstanding Promotional Announcement at the Emmy Awards

It's time for me to begin my coverage of the Emmy Awards with the nominations for Outstanding Commercial.

"Batman vs. Bateman" – Hungry Man and Highdive (State Farm)
"The Boy & The Octopus" – Hungry Man and adam&eveDDB (Disney)
"Brian Cox Goes to College" – O Positive and Special US (Uber One for Students)
"Flock" – Smuggler and TBWA\ Media Arts Lab (Apple Privacy)
"Heartstrings" – Smuggler and TBWA\ Media Arts Lab (Apple AirPods Pro)
"So Win." – Somesuch and Wieden+Kennedy (Nike)

Unlike previous years, there doesn't seem to be a single public service announcement (PSA) in the field. Those are what attracted me to the category in the first place eight years ago, so I miss them. Let's see if still do by the time I finish watching all the nominees. Follow over the jump.

'Animals Might Be Much Older Than We Thought' for a late Darwin Day

A belated happy Darwin Day!* For today's tale of the scientist credited with formulating the theory of evolution by natural selection, I'm turning once again to PBS Eons mentioning Charles Darwin in Animals Might Be Much Older Than We Thought.

What are animal-like fossils doing in rocks a billion years old, and what does that mean for our understanding of their evolution and geologic time itself? Turns out, there might've been a long, slow-burning fuse that ultimately ignited the Cambrian Explosion.

More than 150 years later, scientists are still answering questions that puzzled Darwin.

Since Kallie Moore mentioned it, here is the video about multicellular Precambrian fossils she recommended, These Fossils Were Supposed To Be Impossible.

Hidden in rocks once thought too old to contain complex life we may have found the animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.

I'm considering showing one of these videos to my Organismal Biology students this summer. If so, welcome to blogging as professional development.

I'm not done with holidays. Stay tuned for Valentines Day. I've had enough of mass shootings. I think I'll turn it into one of my trademark drum corps holidays.

*I got so distracted by the shiny object of bird flu that I forgot about the day until I watched Danny Anduza of Paleontologizing do a Twitch stream about it. Oops!

PBS Eons explains 'How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles'

This has been Rancho La Brea week on Twitch, where I have been hanging out lately. First, Joschua Knüppe, who streams on Twitch as Paleostream, digitally painted a recreation of my old stomping grounds during the late Pleistocene, which I watched part of, three days ago. Then RockItSage hosted a Rancho La Brea stream last night. I shared three videos as resources for Sage. She ended up using How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles.

Despite the profound changes we’ve made here in recent history, the epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible - and even striking - if you know where and how to look for it.

This video has even more geology than paleontology, which is probably why Sage shared it and reacted to it for her audience. I'm glad I passed this on to her. It also gave me an opportunity to revisit Rancho La Brea, which I haven't done in detail here since Kunstler, K-Dog, and I discuss prehistoric mammals for Darwin Day... That post featured the second video I shared. Watch it there. As for the third, stay tuned. I'm being a good environmentalist and conserving my resources for a future entry.