NYMag’s guide to 2008 in culture.
High
Best By-Product of the Election: The Rise of the Female Pundit
With two female candidates, skeptical female pundits were key, from the swashbuckling Campbell Brown to lefty pinup Rachel Maddow to, hell, even those crazy babes on The View, who blurred the line between personal and political with an eraser the size of Ohio.
Low
Notes to pop’s megastars (we’re looking at you, Beyoncé): (1) Do not release a concept album under an assumed name that expresses your inner split personality. (2) Do not divide said album into two CDs, one for each personality. (3) Do not fill the album with second-tier knockoffs of the sound that made you great. (4) Do not make a metal glove your new fashion signature.
I especially enjoyed the “intentionally oversimplified year-end mega matrix”:
