I don't know if anyone is interested in my notes for making this mix, but here they are.

Thinking about a self-portrait that Parker would make for herself -- well. She's not the most introspective of characters, and definitely not the most emotionally aware. She doesn't like revealing herself, but then again, she often states things in the bluntest possible way. So I was looking for mostly happy, upbeat songs, preferably quirky.

I knew I wanted to use the shot of the house explosion from her backstory, so I wanted to find a song that would reference the stuffed rabbit. Which is where "My Tiger, My Heart" came in. I also knew I wanted to use "I Don't Feel So Well" if I could find a way to work it in -- it's a bit introspective, but it's a central issue that Parker has been grappling with for a while now. The rest of the songs filtered in after that.

A note on "Where's My Monkey": I was riffing off the idea of Parker making a mix for herself, and it occurred to me to see if there were any artists named Parker that I could use. This particular song was perfect for Parker's sense of humor, and it made a great deflection from the rest of the mix: See, this isn't serious. I mean, come on, the first song is about a monkey, ha ha. How can anyone take it seriously?

The graphics took a while to put together. I was originally thinking about having the front cover be all black, to balance out the whiteness of the explosion picture. But I didn't like that; it made it seem like her present is darker than her past, which isn't what I wanted to say at all. I finally went for something with more color, and just a hint of the over-lightness that makes the explosion pic white out.

I kept the basic Sans font that my graphics program comes with. I didn't want anything fancy for Parker; the font is a vehicle for getting the words across, nothing more. That's also why I kept them in black and white (though I would have changed them if I couldn't read those colors on the backgrounds).

The title is pretty obviously from my riffing about Parker doing a self-portrait. I listed the artists before the song titles to emphasize that the first song was done by Parker -- since that's part of the joke.

Edited 2012-05-19 03:35 am (UTC)

Congratulations -- you've earned your name tag!!! *twirls you*

I've gone back and added it to your previous entries too.