Swish and Filk – Potter Style Filks and such

Those of you who regularly listen to Filkcast: Potter Style may already have heard about this, but Filkcast and Swish and Filk are merging! This means that from now on all filks submitted to Filkcast will be put on Swish and Filk too, unless you specifically state that you don’t want your filks to appear online.

We have created a new index page in the side column, called Filkcast: Potter Style, which features the playlists for all the current episodes of Filkcast, with links to the complete episodes and of course to the Swish and Filk pages for each song. Right now only the songs already featuring on Swish and Filk are linked to that page, but in the coming weeks we will start loading all the previously played filks onto the site, with links to all the index pages.

To celebrate the merge, the Leaky Sisters have created a new filk each! Nina has made an angry Order of the Phoenix/CAPSLOCK HARRY filk called Piece of Me. MJ created a moving and emotional lovesong from Harry to Ginny, wondering if they will still be able to be together when it’s all over, called Return to Forever. And our newest addition is Ann’s defiant Now We’ll See, in which Harry tells Voldemort that all his defences have been broken.

There is more to come, so keep checking back!

~ Nina

In only a few weeks time Filkcast Potter Style will be hosting the second annual Filky Awards! Last year’s show was great fun and we can’t wait for the next one.

This year there were no less than 106 filks to choose from (can you believe it? One hundred and six filks!) and all of last month people could head over to the Filkcast Myspace page to cast their votes for the nominations. Now the nominees have been announced and once again The Leaky Sisters are nominated in a few of the categories!

You can vote for the Filkies at http://www.myspace.com/filkcastpotterstyle (scroll down a bit and you should find a list of categories) until December 10. Most of the nominated filks are also listed here on Swish and Filk, so if you’re unsure who to vote for, you can hear the filks again by clicking on the links below!

Best Solo Performance
Crucio by Bandersnatch
I’m Going On by MJ (written by Ann)
Kreacher’s Sexy Back by Miranda
Stay Close to Me by Bandersnatch (written by weirdsis and Bandersnatch)
Tribute to my Obsession by Ihearttheweasleytwins

Best Duo or Group Performance
Cellblock Tango of Azkaban by Jules, Hilde, Katie, Jamie, Erna and Miranda
Flying Free by The Leaky Sisters
Nothing but the Power of Love by Bandersnatch and Nina
Power of Three by The Leaky Sisters
Sexy Azkaban by The Leaky Sisters

Best Female Performance
I’m Going On by MJ (written by Ann)
Kreacher’s Sexy Back by Miranda
Out in the Cold by Nina
This is how it Goes by Nina
To Know but not to Seek by Nina

Best Male Performance
Crucio by Bandersnatch
Free Luna by Patrick
Keeper of the Keys by Snape44
Stay Close to Me by Bandersnatch (written by weirdsis and Bandersnatch)
You Know my Name by Snape44

Filk of the Year
Flying Free by The Leaky Sisters
I’m Going On by MJ (written by Ann)
The Real Mad-Eye Moody by HermyG13
Sexy Azkaban by The Leaky Sisters
You Belong Together by Ihearttheweasleytwins

Filker of the Year
Bandersnatch
HermyG13
Patrick
Snape44
SeverineSnape (that’s me)

Have fun listening to, and voting for the nominated filks, and good luck to all the nominees!

-Nina

Well, we finally pulled our fingers out and uploaded some of the filk submissions that have been piling up over the past few months. We have no less than 12 new filks sent in by known and loved filkers such as the peeps from Filkcast RylOraMcBeck and Overcast, Hilde from Gallerycast, HPhorsegirl and Snape44, Ihearttheweasleytwins, and Bandersnatch and weirdsis.

It’s a mixed bunch! We have songs about characters varying from Bellatrix to Moaning Myrtle, we have Harry pining for his Ginny and vice versa, some (three, no less) lovely memories of our dearly departed Fred, Harry is fighting old Volders all over again, there’s a song about the joys of killing Muggles, we have Harry dreaming of Hogwarts, a true house-elf opera and RylOraMcBeck’s Filky Award-nominated song about dear Neville, who is not so dim and clumsy as he may appear on first sight.

Of course we have not been sitting still ourselves! MJ wrote an emotional plea from Harry to Molly Weasley, to assure her that her baby boy Ron must and will come with him in his search for Voldemort – it’s called “Can’t Sit Waiting“. We have another Leaky Sisters collaboration entitled “Flying Free“, which is a tribute to Harry’s beloved Hedwig. Finally, I have just finished Voldemort’s very own evil superhero themesong!

Enjoy the filks, and keep them coming!

Nina

Ok, it’s been a few months now, we know, but in December Filkcast Potter Style hosted their first annual Filky Awards show. The Leaky sisters had several nominations, and even won the awards for Best Female (with Angelina) and Best Solo (with Chasing the Dream). Bandersnatch’s “Prophecy” won Filk of the Year and Best Male, HPHorsegirl won Filker of the Year and Harry’sJulie’s “Snape’s Lament” was also nominated in no less than three categories. Because we’re kinda proud that Swish and Filk hosts so many award-winning filks, we have decided to add little award buttons to the winning and nominated filks! So look out for the following buttons:

In addition, I have written a new filk, once again about everyone’s favourite Potions Master (the man can’t help but be inspirational) – this time he’s having a good old rant about our Boy Hero. It’s called Rules Don’t Apply to Heroes and it is to the tune of “Peachy” by the ever amazing Missy Higgins. Enjoy!

~ Nina

While mindlessly browsing our own site yesterday (as we like to do) we suddenly realised that all our filk pages suddenly linked back to pages in our old system, and that none of the filks could be accessed any more! After a frantic quest for help with the WordPress helpdesk we were told that they had made a change in their system which we were unaware of, and which meant none of our old URLs would work any more and we had to change them all!! We did this today. So if you had any filks bookmarked you will need to update your bookmarks! We have carefully changed all the links on all the pages, but if you do still find some faulty ones, please email us at swishandfilk@gmail.com to let us know.

Ann just wrote and recorded an awesome new filk called Black Velvet, to the tune of Alannah Myles’s Black Velvet. I had the privilege to add some harmonies to it myself. It’s one for the girls! I’m not telling you what it is about, go check for yourself! It is hilarious.

Finally, we have quite a few filks that were sent in by you guys that are waiting to be uploaded. We hope to have them all up by the end of next week – look out for our announcement!

- Nina

We have been getting so many new submissions lately that we decided it was time for a more organised indexing system so our filks are easier to find. Today we’ve launched Part 1 of the new system.

As you can see in the right-hand column on the page, our regular “Leaky Sisters Filks” and “Your Filks” links have disappeared and have been replaced by three new links: “Alphabetical List,” “Filks by Character Theme” and “Filks by Performer.” Each of these pages contain ALL the filks on the site, both from you and us, but indexed in different ways.

“Alphabetical List” speaks for itself: at the top of the page you will find the Leaky Sisters Filks organised alphabetically, and lower down the page there is a list of Your Filks, also rearranged in alphabetical order – useful if you know exactly which filk you’re looking for.

“Filks by Character Theme” has the filks organised by groups of characters, such as “the Trio,” “Death Eaters and Dark Magic” or “Hogwarts Students.” Per category you will find the Leaky Sisters filks at the top with Your Filks below it.

“Filks by Performer” gives you an alphabetical list of who have performed the filks, again with Leaky Sisters at the top, followed by a list of other filk writers and singers. So if you want to see all filks that were sent in by Harry’sJulie, or by Snape44, this is the page for you.

Part 2 of our indexing system should be launched soon and will contain an index page of filks organised by book and a page that is organised by topic, such as love, good vs. evil or holiday filks.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this, tell us if you think it’s made browsing easier, or actually more complicated!

~Nina

PS: We have also added a new Leaky Sister’s filk today, called “To Know but not to Seek” – a filk of Harry’s thoughts as he buries Dobby at Shell Cottage, based on the song “Scarlet” by the amazing Brooke Fraser.

We have had a large number of great submissions from our friends recently. If you check out the Your Filk page link to the right, you can find all of the songs submitted by other people since we opened this site. Most recently, we have added many great songs from Snape44, including At This Moment, a tune about the Lightning Struck Tower scene, Lily Potter’s Eyes, ruminations by a couple of characters about Harry, Not a Dry Eye in the Crowd, which is a tribute to some of the fallen heroes, and Eye of the Auror – who could this be but Moody? Also, Voldemort weighs in with You Know My Name, the Dursleys have their say with I Believe My Own Eyes, and then there is the lovable giant, Hagrid, in Keeper of the Keys. Patrick has sent us another one, called Sweet Cat of Mine, a song by Filch in honor of his best friend Mrs. Norris, and HPhorsegirl has one asking Lily if she knew what her son was destined for, called Lily Did You Know. Last, but certainly not least, weirdsis and Bingus McGee give us old Auntie Muriel, in the tune Only a Princess Knows How To Wear A Tiara.
Hope you enjoy all of these submissions, and feel free to send in your own! We Leaky Sisters will hopefully be posting a couple of new ones ourselves in the near future.

Ann and I were talking about how to further spread the words about the awesomeness that is Swish and Filk, and I came up with the idea to create a MySpace Music Page for us! I have to say, I love MySpace, but don’t know much about the logistics of it…so it took me all weekend. No blood, but a lot of sweat and a few tears later, and I am happy to present you with our MySpace Music Profile! Check it out!

Click Here to find our MySpace page. Please go friend us!! Look for different layouts, and HOPEFULLY, a weekly blog about the lives and times of these Leaky Sisters! Enjoy!

Yours in all things filk and Potter!

–MJ