Stories These are stories and songs that I've written (and one by someone else) as humorous parodies or dramatic interpretations of other people's published works. If you ever want to check out either the original song or the original source, there are links to more info. I've always got several ideas working at once, so updates aren't regular, but a few things may make an appearance all at once. Enjoy!

Filk songs


  • #1: Filk: "Hotohori"
    - to the tune of "Oklahoma!" by Rodgers & Hammerstein (?) | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Sephiroth aka. Joshua Hime
    Details: Received via email in the early days of the FY mailing list (FYML), this is a Fushigi Yuugi filk (with stage cues) involving a Suzuku-group victory party. "Oklahoma!" is the titular song from a popular old Broadway musical about farmers and ranchers learning to get along in the Oklahoma frontier. | More Story Info (Fushigi)

  • #2: Filk: "Kourin"
    - to the tune of "Lola" by The Kinks | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Another Fushigi Yuugi filk, I wrote this one in defiance of the popular Nuriko-Hotohori match-up. The original song is about a young man's first sexual encounter with a "woman" in Soho (near New York City's Greenwich Village, traditional refuge of many warm-hearted beatniks and homosexuals). However, in this version, the unexperienced, wide-eyed boy is Tasuki the bandit king, and the powerfully alluring woman he meets is Nuriko, a cross-dressing bisexual who also goes by the feminine name Lady Kourin. | More Story Info

  • #3: Filk: "Millerna"
    - to the tune of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Keeping the balance between my two favorite anime series (at that time), I did a Vision of Escaflowne filk following up on "Kourin". Millerna is often ignored or hated by Esca fans, and she's usually paired off with Allen the gallant knight, instead of her betrothed, Dryden the scholar and John Lennon-lookalike. The original song is a self-parody, commenting on the easy life of rock musicians in the video-focused age of MTV, even though the song itself was heavily promoted on MTV because of its pioneering use of extensive computer animation. Dryden works his butt off like the furniture movers in the song, while Allen poses dramatically like the envied rock stars. | More Story Info

  • #4: Filk: "Kaoru Came Home"
    - to the tune of "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: This Rurouni Kenshin filk isn't one of my favorites. Interpreting the original song is hard, because of the vague lyrics, but I believe the song describes a woman pushed beyond her limits who burns down her house or town and possibly her abusive spouse as well. I tried to lighten the mood a bit and ended up losing much of the emotion of the original. In any case, Kaoru is an independent young woman tentatively building a partnership with Kenshin, an emotionally and physically scarred ex-assassin. Here I made up a seductive shopping spree for Kaoru, but that's so far out of character that the tension and frustration become almost pathetic. Check out "The Stone: Scenes from the life of a wanderer" below for an RK filk that's better and features Kenshin himself. | More Story Info

  • #5: Filk: "Rushe - Dark Schneider"
    - to the tune of "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: I might have tried too hard on this Bastard!! filk, but the campy lyrics seem to fit the tongue-in-cheek atmosphere of the original story. The original song is one of my favorites from the Fab Four. It describes a plaintive appeal to an editor from a young writer trying to sell his dimestore novel. This song is a plaintive appeal to readers, especially women, to check out the story of Bastard!! and its main character, Rushe/Dark Schneider. The series is full of lowbrow humor, sex, violence, and crude language, just like a stereotypical paperback, so I thought the cross would be pretty good. You can judge for yourself, though. | More Story Info

  • #11: Filk: "Pretty Fly (for a Bad Guy)"
    - - to the tune of "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" by Offspring | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: This is my first experiment with a filk-cycle, which is something like a drinking song, in that you can pick and choose from among several verses or just sing them all. I modified the chorus only slightly, since it's very catchy in its original form. The subjects are some of my favorite villains and antiheroes, usually from anime. Currently, I've done verses for: Nakago, Folken, Saitoh, Seishirou, and Vegeta. Of course it's a growing song, so new verses are always welcome. | More Story Info

Vidclips


  • #6: Vidclip: "You Keep Me Hangin' On"
    - using the song "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: Continuing with the theme of active women from "Kaoru Came Home" and "Rushe - Dark Schneider", I did a dramatic script mock-up using source material from Ranma 1/2 (stock footage), Vision of Escaflowne (episodes 20-26), and Rurouni Kenshin (episodes 25-40, plus OVA). This was my first attempt at sticking to the original lyrics and providing only scene descriptions, sometimes called a vidclip. By choice, I mixed scenes from the original story with events that never happened or were never animated. The heroines of each of the three stories give the relationship testimonials described in the song, with feelings ranging from frustration to bittersweet remorse. I like how this turned out, but I'll probably stay away from multi-source works for a while. | More Story Info (Escaflowne)

  • #7: Vidclip: "The Stone: Scenes from the life of a wanderer"
    - using the song "The Stone" by The Dave Matthews Band | Original Song Lyrics
    - by Mandisa Washington
    Details: The start of a dark, angst-filled theme, this Rurouni Kenshin vidclip is my most ambitious to-date, using a long song (7+ minutes) with lots of evocative instrumentals. I really wanted to keep the feel of the original song, with its desperate cry for forgiveness and repentance. That feeling perfectly complements the epic story of Kenshin, a former political assassin and Japanese revolutionary seeking redemption and comradeship on an endless journey as a masterless swordsman (Japanese: rōnin). The result captures the poetic feeling of the originals, I feel. | More Story Info
The list continues...

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