Aretha Franklin is known for a big presence, a big voice, and more recently a Very Big Hat.  (Or, more accurately, a Very Big Bedazzled Bow on a regular-sized hat.)

Aretha’s Inaugural headwear made about as much an impression as her version of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” which was in such high demand that she’s released it digitally.  Her hat is also in high demand – the Museum of American History (one of the 19 Smithsonians) is hoping that she’ll donate it to them.

Aretha said that she’s considering donating her hat to the Smithsonian Institute, but no decisions have been announced.  The hat itself was made by a Detroit hatmaker who now has a month-long backlog of people clamoring for a similarly bedecked headdress.  Although he won’t make an exact replica, he will be making something close for those who have lined up to remember the Inauguration with a custom-made bling bling lid.

Whether the Big Bow (all fancy hats need a nickname) will be on public display for future generations is up to the Queen of Soul.  If she were to donate it, it would be in fine company: the National Museum of American History also houses Lincoln’s top hat, and with his 200th birthday tomorrow and the significance he’s had for the Obama campaign, perhaps it’s only fitting that Aretha’s Big Bow go to live alongside Lincoln’s top hat.

And so we award Aretha Franklin a slightly overdue Fantasy T-Wearer Award, though in this case we present her with a cap.  While we acknowledge that a baseball hat doesn’t make the same impression that a Swarovski crystal-encrusted headdress does, regrettably we don’t do jewels yet.

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As mentioned previously, the CafePress Ground Crew flew to the 2009 Inauguration to take part in the Obama celebration that had been happening via the almighty T-shirt for the bulk of 2008. With Obama T-shirts and gifts being added to our system at breakneck speed, in 6 months the then-Democratic-not-yet-presumptive-nominee had more t-shirts made about him than George Bush had amassed in 8 years.

Which is to say that, in the world of wearable self-expression, Obama took on the T-shirt primaries with a vengeance and ran with them all the way to the Presidency.

In any case, we hit the ground in D.C. armed (literally) with thousands of free buttons for all the folks who’d showed up from far-flung states and nations to witness history with 2 million of their closest friends.

After recovering from being outside in sub-freezing temperatures for a couple days, we put together this piece as a snapshot of the all the nice folks we encountered during our Inauguration adventures.  Enjoy…

CafePress goes to Washington from CafePress on Vimeo.

Oh – for those of you wondering, we did shoot all this video with the ever-portable Flip Mino HD.  Because bulky video cameras are hard to lug around, and even harder to use on a carousel.

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There’s been a lot of requests for the CafePress Inauguration button – this is the free button that we handed out throughout D.C. and on the Mall during the Inauguration festivities.

We exhausted our physical supply, so we’ve put it up in a CafePress shop at Base Price so that those of you who want to remember this day can do so with a groovy, 3.5″ button.

While we’re still consolidating all the pictures and such we took, if you’re interested in seeing a snapshot of the Inauguration crowds we do have a Button Brigade flickr album that gives you a sampling of all the nice, celebrating people we met over our 3 days in D.C. while we handed out t-shirts and buttons.

It was an amazing thing to see not only the sheer number of people out there, but the number of parents who’d brought their kids to D.C. to take part in this historic Inauguration.

The crowds in D.C. were huge, jubilant, actively celebrating and incredibly diverse – much like the CafePress community itself.

We feel very fortunate to have been able to make so many new friends in D.C., and so glad that we were able to provide a free memento to those who braved the cold, the crowds and the prices to get on out there.  This Inauguration was all about being accessible for We the People, and from what we saw that intention was realized.

So for those of you who weren’t able to be there or just didn’t find us among the millions o’ people, we hope that this button provides you with a nice reminder of that day.

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President Obama took office yesterday, with over a million people braving the icy winds of the Potomac to stand in the Mall and watch him take office.

After handing out all our free buttons to the thousands of folks on the Mall, the CafePress Ground Crew headed up toward the closest JumboTron to wait for it all to start.  We managed to get to the Washington Monument – about 1.5 miles from the Capitol building.  Which is to say that we had an interesting view of A Lot of (Freezing) People, and a pretty good one of the screen.

Look, there we are!

One of the more interesting things about being in a crowd this size was how mellow and well-behaved it was.  The freezing cold may have helped; it was 13 degrees with the wind chill, and a lot of people spent the wait time trying to concentrate on staying warm.

Our trick: the hokey pokey.  We also did some jumping in place and general fidgeting.

This regrettably amateurish photo shows the sea o’ people next to us.  (My actual camera had a temper tantrum, so I was forced to document with my phone.  I always knew that camera was a McCain fan.)  Fortunately, my cohorts took tons of Inauguration pictures and some video and we’ll be getting those up soon.

While watching TV from far away in 13 degree weather may not sound like the most fun thing in the world, the crowd itself made the experience one to remember.

We met tons of interesting people in D.C., and saw an absolutely incredible amount of Obama stuff for sale.  Street vendors, stores and even the trendy boutiques in Georgetown were all selling their own hot Obama merchandise, from blah to bling and everything in between.

In the end, we had a great time handing out our buttons and being part of the Inauguration that seemed so personal to so many people.  This election season was incredibly vibrant in the CafePress community, and we’re happy that so many people were able to be a part of it.

Onward we go…

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A (free) button’s worth 1,000 words… and a crowd o’people.

More Inauguration pictures to come!

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The Inauguration festivities were in full swing yesterday, with a massive concert on the mall drawing hundreds of thousands of people to celebrate and listen to Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, U2, Stevie Wonder and others.

The CafePress Ground Crew hit the Mall running with free buttons for the happy spectators – two of them are seen here.

The sea of people made stage visibility near impossible, but the sight of the huge, celebrating crowd was – in our button-festooned opinion – the best view of what this inauguration means to people.

More 2009 Inauguration photos will be uploaded, so if you’re interested do check back in to see what hijinks might find us.

D.C. overall is brimming with a lot of happy people; restaurants and bars are packed to capacity until the wee hours of the morning, and the streets at times look like the sidewalks of New York.

We have seen a massive amount of Obama merchandise for sale; everything from t-shirts to rhinestone encrusted beanies and walking guides of D.C.  (The “stuff we saw for sale” album will be uploaded in a bit.)

Overall, the energy in Washington is that of a huge, collective celebration.  Even the plane ride is was more like riding a peace bus from the 70’s, with passengers talking about the inauguration events and sharing stories of why they were participating in it.

And it’s snowing today, which of course makes the California snow-deprived people happy (and extra-happy that we added good socks to our packing list).

Unfortunately, there won’t be enough snow to create our own t-shirt wearing Snowzilla (or Obamazilla), and the buttons would make such nice eyes.  Ah, well.

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Next week I’ll be blogging from Washington, D.C. during the inauguration festivities.  We’ll be taking lots of pictures and video, so be sure to check out our Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube channels if you want to check out all the craziness that finds us.  We’ll do the best we can to find some down time for uploading and such.

If you’re going to be in D.C., hit our Facebook page with stories and photos of your wild and crazy time.

In any case, in preparing for this trip I figured I’d make a list of the things one might need when traveling to a City of 600,000 that’s about to be filled by 4 million people.  Packing light and being scrappy are a must for this trip given the crowds, so I figured I’d make a list of things I can obtain at work or in transit to make life easier.

1) Obama t-shirts (+ beanie!)

Since my experience on the East Coats tells me that venues in wintertime tend to overheat their interiors to the point of sweltering, layering is going to be a must.  Of course, no self-respecting CafePress employee would leave for a societally significant event without a trusty t-shirt or two anyway.  I’ll be packing a few of the limited-edition Obama inauguration t-shirts (above), which is particularly appropriate given that we’ll be attending the Rock the Vote/Rolling Stone inauguration concert.  The free-with-purchase beanie will also be coming with me, which is good news for my ears but bad news for my hair.

Added bonus: packing extras means that we can trade them in the event of a true emergency.  Like needing the use of a bathroom.

2) Obama sweatshirts

It’s cold in D.C., with today’s “high” being a balmy 19 degrees.  It’s especially cold in D.C. for California people who generally see anything below 40 degress on a ski slope, which means that we’re usually draped in puffy jackets and high-performance pants in such conditions.

With that in mind, I realized that I’d better get some sweatshirts for layering purposes.  I really dug the design I found (at left) – it reminds me of a time when I wore Wonder Woman Underoos.

Speaking of which, given the weather I wouldn’t mind an adult pair of those.  Too bad they don’t make them; I’ll just have to settle for a boring old thermal and long johns.

3) Flip Mino HD

Taking video is a must during our time in D.C., but carrying around a bulky video camera isn’t practical given the crowds, the likelihood of walking everywhere, and of course the size limitation (8×6x4)  on bags.

Thankfully we have the Flip Mino, which can fit in my pocket and not worry me unnecessarily about the various bad things that I’ve been known to do to electronics, such as: dropping them, getting them stolen, accidentally wading into the water with them (unlikely anyway, given the temperatures)…

Let’s just say that the inexpensive and blissfully portable Flip is the absolute best solution for in this scenario for people like me.

4) Peanuts!

Planes may not give us food anymore, but most of them still give us peanuts.  Given the high protein content of peanuts, the portability of those nice little bags and the idea of 2-4 million people trying to find food in a city meant to feed 600,000, I’m thinking that stocking up on plane peanuts isn’t a bad idea.  Added bonus: salty snacks help us retain water, which might help with the bathroom math issue.

Those 4 things plus a pair of jeans or two and my toothbrush, and I think I’m pretty much set.  If y’all have a travel “must” that I’m forgetting, do feel free to share.

And if you are in D.C. next week and you spot us, come say hello!  You never know – you might just bump into us somewhere unexpected.

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