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Mayor Garcetti To Conduct Trojan Marching Band At USC Football Game
The USC Marching Band. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)
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Ah, Eric Garcetti. Mayor (for now), lover of dad-jokes, and also... marching band conductor? On Saturday, Mayor Garcetti will guest conduct the USC Marching Band for its annual "High School Band Day," which invites high schoolers from around the city to join the marching band performance during half-time. Garcetti is the first L.A. mayor to serve as guest conductor.
The Trojan Marching Band will perform alongside 1,400 students from 14 L.A.-area high schools, the University announced Friday. The marching band has been inviting high schoolers to perform annually since the 1940s, and this year they'll play Randy Newman's iconic "I Love L.A." to commemorate the Olympics' return to Los Angeles in 2028.
“We honor [Mayor Garcetti] Saturday because of the completion of USC Village, a great collaboration between the city and USC, and his work returning the Olympics to the Coliseum in 2028," said Arthur C. Bartner, director of the Trojan Marching Band, according to City News Service.
The marching band previously played "I Love L.A." at Garcetti's inauguration for his second term as mayor. Garcetti has also recently shown off his own musical chops, most notably playing jazz piano with his eyes closed at the La La Land DVD release party city-sponsored "La La Land Day" party.
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While some Angelenos feel the Mayor has spent too much time outside Los Angeles lately, we know he'll be in the city for at least a 30-minute period Saturday afternoon during the USC-Oregon football game at the Coliseum. The game kicks off at 1 p.m., with halftime starting around 2:30 p.m.
Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." has been used as a promotional tool for the Olympics in the past. In 1984 (when the summer Olympics took place in L.A.), Nike aired an ad for the '84 Games that featured the song as its soundtrack.
The song, while generally viewed as an anthem for the city, was written as social satire. The geography the song charts—from Century Boulevard to Victory Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard to Sixth Street—traverses the entirety of Los Angeles and its sprawling economic disparity. Mayor Garcetti and the USC Marching Band will play the song to honor Los Angeles and the Olympics, the social and economic ramifications of which critics believe to be potentially disastrous.
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