The Rise & Fall of Hot Dog & Sneaker Goose

As evidenced here and at cromulence.com I loves me some gift-making for friends. Each time, I’m amazed at how they get more complex and just plain better. The latest is possibly the most in-joke-laden, private-referenced, richly symbolic ever. And best of all, it was done in partnership with one referenced Lil Behzy, all triggered by the original JB. It was a CD, and the accompanying detailed liner notes.

To draw out the hidden layers for posterity:

The cover shot was down to three options – all informed by the Worst Album Covers. This one, and this one were seriously considered.
I had a rule that only photos sourced from our workplace were used – so there’s only one expression from me
The orange colours were chosen from Kuler to provide print proof ideas for DMA branding
BarrieMaster is a reference to Buckmaster.
There is a regrettable error when I reference Mark Thompson (who thought as a child he had invented the shrug) with a ‘copyright’ when it should have been a TM
Behzad is Peter Ducker on the back page. Only he didn’t know who Peter Drucker was. And he’s doing an MBA.
Passiona Trick Crew was the final edition to the text after Justin told a story about the Coca-Cola Trick Team, and after I drank my first Passiona. First and last.
“Travel well,” is a reference to Justin’s off-used ‘how are you travelling’ enquiry into progress.
The typewriter fonts used in the headers, TIB and DMA logo were tweeted by Justin some weeks before.
Gill Sans was to be the main font, but I went with Myriad. Gill would have been symbolic, but it wasn’t heavy enough for taking the colour from behind. A statement which itself is a reference to Gill’s dog fucking ways. Boom Boom.
The 12 in ~$12,000 I receive for ~ use is a reference to my 12-month contract
I really do sound like Axl Rose when I sing
In a previous version I was also a member of Salt N Pepa N Mustard, only to be kicked out for insisting ‘Push It’ should be ‘Pull It’ because “if you wanted to ‘get up on this’ surely the force needed was one that exerts pressure in the direction of the origin.” I took it out for space reasons. Also, quite frankly, I was coming across as too much of a loser.
Other things that didn’t make the final cut: We were going to have the line ‘This was to be [insert name]‘s defining moment” in every paragraph. We were also going to have a similar ‘We’re bigger than Jesus’ line, for a few versions ‘We’ll have more hits than Hitler appeared’ – it was wisely dropped.
The bubble writing on the disc itself represents the two styles of classy and sans-classy. The green edge is a nod to making covers of school assignments extra classy. If I had a silver pen that would’ve made an appearance too – possibly as spots.
I have three favourite bits: 1) Taking off My Pants to Unlock the Door (to your heart) as a song because it was the best story 2) Tying it together with the ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ reference – completely true. 3) How it perfectly encompasses four of the most uniquely genuine and hilariously cool four months of my life.

The songs on the CD were selected by Behzad and me as fitting the criteria of either:

A song we thought we’d like Justin to hear
A song we just liked
A song that could relate to the Rise and Fall concept – as in epic, or humorous

We chose six songs each, with the agreed 13th being ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. The tracks – which I ordered based on musical vibe, man, rather than content are as follows (initial indicates the picker):

That Look You Give That Guy – The Eels (BE)
Someday – The Strokes (BE)
EMI Unlimited Edition – Sex Pistols (ME)
Somewhere Down the Barrel – The Dissociatives (ME)
Caught By the Fuzz – Supergrass (BE) interesting note, ME also had a Supergrass song in her original selection
Island in the Sun – Weezer (BE)
Runaway – Kanye West (BE)
Garden of Eden – Guns ‘N’ Roses (ME)
Anchor Me (Greenpeace version) – various NZ (ME)
Hair – Lady Gaga (ME)
Party All the Time – Eddie Murphy (BE)
Invincible – Muse (ME)
Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen (BE, ME)