Gawker: valleywag, photoshop

Aretha's Hat Goes from Internet Meme to Actual Business

Owen Thomas — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:14:15 EDT

The moment Aretha Franklin stepped out at the Obamanaugural, people went nuts over the structured beret with large bow" she wore. Now Luke Song, Franklin's longtime Detroit milliner, is getting actual orders for actual hats!

He has more than 5,000 orders for the spring version of the hat, selling for $179 apiece. That's an $895,000 Aretha windfall, folks!

Commerce is ephemeral, though, and Aretha's hat really belongs to the ages. Franklin has lent the original hat to the Smithsonian, and afterwards, it will rest in Obama's future presidential library.

On the Internet, it's still going strong! (Gay men love it, because they all like to think they are strong, proud black women like Aretha on the inside, except without the racism or sexism or loss of actual privilege.) A parody Twitter feed for Aretha's hat is still posting 140-character messages direct from "the haid." And through the magic of Photoshop, the hat can be one with us all:

Oh no! Now Shepard Fairey will sue us and everyone else on the Internet!

Rod Blagojevich!

Did you know that President George W. Bush wore the hat while getting briefed about 9/11? True, except not!

Portland Mayor Sam Adams pays a heavy, felted price for the Beau Breedlove scandal!

Aretha's hat injured Dick Cheney's back! Except it didn't!

(Photoshop of Arethafied Chief Justice John Roberts through the power of Jameth; others via Buzzfeed and Political Irony and everywhere, because this is basically one of those Internet picture meme things)

The sad thing is, we think Digg CEO Jay Adelson might actually think he's Tom Cruise

Owen Thomas — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

A recent photo of sunglass-sporting Digg CEO Jay Adelson with slightly more nerdy Google cofounder Larry Page sent reader theodp on an '80s nostalgia trip. (Photo by Reuters, photoillustration by theodp)

Iran hacks world media with Photoshop

Paul Boutin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Left: The head-turning photo that appeared all over the world yesterday. Right, the original photo. The New York Times, which ran the altered version, explains how the photo spread "from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards," to "the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites." We lucked out by running other photos for variety. (Photo by Sepah News via AP)

Walt Mossberg in a suit? Gotta be Photoshop

Paul Boutin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:40:00 EDT

It's not just me. The sight of Walt Mossberg, the Big Guy of gadget journalism, in a tie and jacket for an ad promoting his appearance on the Fox Business cable network was such a surprise that even Walt's longtime colleague Kara Swisher blogged about it. Fox has been caught Photoshopping opposition journalists. Did they likewise suit up Mossberg in postproduction? Hope so. A suit is a suit, but a 'shop is a story. Memo to Fox: Computer experts are like Trace Adkins. "Work boots, one blue suit / Size too small, won't wear it at all / Unless somebody kicks or gets hitched / It don’t fit, and it makes me itch." Keep it real, Walt!

What If Websites Were Realistic?

Nick Douglas — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:50:48 EDT

What if Facebook let you properly express your rage against the tool who just added you to the "Buying and Selling Friends" app? What if Netflix knew you'd skip to the dirty bits? I paid Jay Hathaway a slave's wage to draw up what this would look like.

Microsoft hires father of Photoshop away from Adobe

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Engineer Mark Hamburg has left Adobe for Microsoft. Known as the "architect" of Adobe, Hamburg is credited by the Photoshop Hall of Fame with "programmer logic and the compositing models that unite Photoshop's imaging effects to specific features such as the history palette, free transform, screen caching, and shapes." Hamburg will move to Seattle and focus on "user experience." [LightroomNews]

You Suck At Photoshop

Nick Douglas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:34:27 EST

My favorite new web series is a bunch of Photoshop lessons. No, really, funny ones, in which the teacher works out his frustrations at his marriage through angry software lessons. The script is clever ("we could use this tool to clean off some of the dirty shame and unfulfilled dreams") and makes some jokes only possible in (I can't believe I'm saying this) the medium of screencast comedy. Because the nerdy joke beneath this is that he's actually teaching Photoshop techniques. Below, watch the best episode.

There are five episodes so far, all on the site "My Damn Channel," a competitor to "Funny or Die" and Superdeluxe. Like "Funny or Die," which got attention for Will Ferrell's baby landlord sketch, "My Damn Channel" might get more attention thanks to this breakout show, which has gotten a couple million views on YouTube.