Posts Tagged ‘saffron songs’

And about time, too. Actually I have to confess, I've known the winners for two weeks now, but while I knew which songs were chosen by Christina Hendricks, Cedric of The Bedlam Bards, and myself, I was really hoping to include Ms. Hendricks' actual notes. She gushed over them all (sample quote: "God, these people are amazing! I was telling Morena about it, it's just fantastic. I want a CD of this!") but wanted time to flesh out her notes since she had jotted them down whenever she had time. However, her new show "Mad Men" (Thursday nights at 10 on AMC) is getting huge reviews and record-breaking ratings — and richly deserves both – and she's been a bit swamped, so rather than keep everyone hanging I'm going to announce the winners and add the rest of her comments whenever they come in. 

First off I want to say that I'd have been happy with any of the songs winning, they were that good. I know, everyone running a contest says something schmaltzy like that, but come on. These were way beyond what I was hoping for, and I had pretty high hopes. I got exactly what I wanted out of this contest: some great songs about a lady who definitely deserved them. So… Read the rest of this entry »

You may have noticed the totals in the Saffron Song poll have come down. I had to moderate things a bit.

Some quick info on computers: every computer has an IP address which tells the network/Internet/whatever where that computer is. Many online polls record IP addresses to prevent people from voting more than once with the same computer. However, this isn't perfect because groups of computers in the same network (such as a workplace or a computer lab) could show up as the same IP address. And tracking by IP got even trickier when Internet Service Providers began using groups of rotating IP numbers that were assigned at random whenever a computer logged on, because it meant that the same computer might get a different IP address (allowing the same computer to vote again) or a computer that was not used to vote might temporarily get an IP address that the poll recorded (meaning someone who had not persdonally voted would be blocked). So most online polls offer a choice of either restricting votes by IP address or by cookies. The poll system I'm using for the Saffron voting uses cookies.

Which is another problem, since someone could vote, delete their cookies, and vote again, repeat as desired. Or the poll might not care if your computer doesn't save cookies, I dunno. Either way, some multi-voting seems to have been happening with the Saffron votes.

Thing is, I don't know that for sure. Could have been accidental, could have been someone's entire workplace showing their support. I don't know, and have no way of telling. So what I've decided to do — knowing that anything I decided would probably be unfair to somebody — was to go through the poll responses, find the ones with duplicate IP addresses, and trim back those votes if they were over a certain number.

There's no way this can be anything approaching a "scientific" poll anyway, but hopefully this will keep the results closer to actual individual votes. Please, if you've already voted, don't try voting again. This is for fun, folks, I'd like to keep it that way. Also, I have to go through it and remove entries one by one and it's a pain…

Feel free to comment on this decision, I'd like to know what you think.

The time is now! You've got one week to choose your favorite Saffron songs from the amazing entries  to see who gets the coveted Browncoats Choice award.

Over the next week or so all of the entries are being judged by myself, the Bedlam Bards, and Christina Hendricks, and there will be prizes for Best Original and Best Filk. But you folks can pick any song you want to win a separate prize. Just head here to check 'em all out, listen to 'em, download 'em, and vote for up to three of your favorites. You've got till midnight Saturday, June 14. So git! (Updated: I changed the settings so now you'll see the results after you vote. Go see how your pick is doing!)

Frankly I'm happy no matter what happens. I got what I wanted: great songs about my favorite conniving redhead. Life is good.

The songs are all in, Ms. Hendricks and the Bards have been given the heads-up to start a'judgin, and the voting shall commence.

Just not as quickly as I expected. Ran into some glitches — my server is more restrictive on scripts than I expected, none of the polls I tried worked, and none of the free flash polls can handle 37 different answers. Also found out today that three of the original songs weren't actually playing on the site, only providing clips (they worked for me, since I uploaded them, so I hadn't noticed).

So. I'm in the process of setting up the songs on a different host so everyone can hear all the songs, and by Saturday I'll have the new poll set up for voting.

In the meantime I've got all the songs on a CD I've been listening to since the weekend and I'm loving it. Just what I was hoping for when I started this: a wide range of great sogns about my favorite conniving redhead. Sigh. Headaches or not, I'm doing more of these contests…

"Queen of Pain"
(to the tune of "King of Pain" by The Police)
by Benjamin Kuhner

There's a little speck crossing the sun today
And I called it my ship until yesterday
There's a barren rock outside of Alpha Three
Population: one fool, and that fool is me

Chorus:
And my beacon calls out into the endless space
Hoping someone might find me, take me from this place
Sending curses out to she of a thousand names
Though I'll know her forever as the queen of pain…

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"She Said Her Name Was Saffron"
(to the tune of "May Morning Dew", traditional)
by Marc Gunn
(Listen to it here)

I met her on the Outer Rim.
She was a beauty. There's no denial.
We danced around the fire that night.
In the morning, I awoke all smiles.
But when my boat hit atmo,
And she said that we were married.
T'was then I vowed I'd never again
Leave quick when I should tarry.

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"Middle Name (Saffron's Song)"
by Jodi Kinsella
(Listen to it here)

Come closer, baby
I'm yours right now
Fill my empty furrow
With your plow
And I will give you one last
Kiss goodnight
Steal your ship away and
Leave you to die

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"Our Mrs. Reynolds"
Words by Joss Whedon and Rob Kuhlman
Music by Rob Kuhlman
Guitar, mandolin and vocals: Rob Kuhlman
Fiddle: Randy Smith
(Listen to it here)

She was a little antiquated. A little underrated.
She’s from that dumb planet Triumph.
She’s all kinds of pleasing. She’ll wash your feet then,
Tell the boys that girl’s a wonder she gets it done.

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"Never Did Catch Her Name (But She’s My Wife)"
by Marian Call
(Listen to it here) 

Well, she caught my eye on Daedelus
And I couldn’t look away
Imagine my surprise when she told me
That she felt the same way
That night she promised she’d be mine
And she swept me off my feet
And for eighteen golden hours there
My rapture was complete

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"Tales of a Travelling Minx"
(to the tune of "Twiddles" by Janie Meneely)
Lyrics by: C. David Dent
Sung by: Heather Ackroyd and C. David Dent
(Listen to it here)

When you’re young and when you’re pretty and you’re out here on the rim,
There are those who’ll tell you straight up that your future’s kinda grim.
But if you know a thing or two about what makes men tick
You can do a fairly decent job of making cash right quick.

CHORUS:
And it’s marry ’em, dump ’em, move along and find another man.
You’ve got to get to robbin’ just as many as you can.
And it’s marry ’em, dump ’em, move along and find another man.
You’ll never get ahead out here just sittin’ on your can. 

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