PhotograPhs: Patrick McMullan (MaMet, clinton, sPitzer, edwards, giuliani , f ishburne, PhelPs, jackson, sPears, cook, sPencer Pratt, cyrus, lee, Madonna, rodriguez, winehouse) ; r ich Pedroncelli/aP (ProP 8) ; getty iMages (axe) ; donald bowers/getty for coMPany agenda (s ilver) ; aP (gyMnast ) ; Prashant guPta/courtesy of hbo ( true blood); frederick M. brown/getty iMages for aMa (gladiator heels ) ; j iM Mcisaac/getty iMages (Palin) ; joe raedle/getty iMages (Michelle obaMa); kent eanes/courtesy of hbo (john adaMs ); courtesy of cbs (couric and Palin) ; bebeto Matthews/aP (carter) ; chiP soModevilla/getty iMages (bush) ; Matthew sePtiMus/courtesy of MoMa (eliasson’s ventilator); julian finney/getty iMages (nadal and federer) ; f irstview ( ysl Model) ; nicole rivelli /courtesy of hbo ( the wire) ; Prashant guPta/courtesy of fx ( the shield) ; scott wintrow/getty iMages (Paterson); anja niedringhaus/aP (bolt ) ; saM eMerson/courtesy of ParaMount (cloverfield) ; trae Patton/courtesy of bravo (biggest loser) ; kevin Mazor/courtesy of ParaMount (shine a l ight ) ; theo wargo/courtesy of Pbs (feist ) ; dona edelson/courtesy of nbc (sudeikis ) ; Patrick wyMore/courtesy of fox (hole in the wall) ; courtesy of bravo (housewives of new york ) ; jack english/courtesy of l ionsgate (bank job) ; christian jakubaszek/getty iMages (MgMt ); virgina sherwood/courtesy of bravo (housewives of atlanta); bob riha jr. /wireiMage (rafaello); katy winn/getty iMages (stefanie Pratt ) ; julie jacobson/aP (Marbury ) ; Manuel balce caneta/aP (burress ) ; barbara nitke/courtesy of bravo (Project runway ); courtesy of warner bros. P ictures (batMan); courtesy of tbs (frank tv ) ; dana edelson/courtesy of nbc ( vaMPire weekend); bruce glikas/filMMagic (cruise)

Our deliberately oversimplified guide to the year in culture.

de

spic

ab

le

lowbrow

highbrow

Yves Saint Laurent’s

fall collection.

T.I. and Franz Ferdinand play a song

together at diesel’s 30th-anniversary party.

Britney loses it.

tom cruise gets even weirder.

a year of conflicting

reports ends with no movement

toward an Arrested

Development movie.

Paris hilton’s The Hottie and

the Nottie.

the never-ending,

spectacular fall of Amy

Winehouse.

Miley Cyrus vamps it up in

Vanity Fair.

Madonna and A-Rod. just

weird.

Kathie Lee dumbs down the

Today show.

david cook wins. nooooo! Arrrrrchhhhullleetttaaa!

the continuing discovery of new

people in the Pratt family.

The Real World invades Brooklyn.

local role models Stephon

Marbury and Plaxico Burress.

Another year without the stooges

in the rock and roll hall of fame.

the first year since 1994 with

no postseason baseball

in new york.

Time magazine rips off the

“Approval Matrix.”

Raffaello does not work for the pope.

the rote, too-long ending of

The Dark Knight.

another year and goddamn

Frank TV is still around.

vampire weekend plays SNL in

sweaters, further digging rock and

roll’s grave.

Project Runway is suspended indefinitely.

a big hot mess.

The Real Housewives of

Atlanta.

Britney gets it back!

David Paterson, the swingin’ governor.

the Stuff White People

Like blog.

jason sudeikis’s overlooked Joe

Biden impression on SNL.

The Paper on Mtv.

Hole in the Wall. get in that hole!

The Real Housewives of

New York.

The Biggest Loser, couples

and family editions.

the Super Bowl and Final Four both featured heart-

stopping conclusions, and the NBA playoffs

weren’t bad either.

Shine a Light.

the underappreciated The Bank Job.

Usain Bolt.

the year of Craig

Robinson.

The puppy cam.

the Cloverfield monster doesn’t

disappoint.

Hundreds of people freeze in place for five

minutes in Grand Central for an improv

everywhere stunt.

MILF Island from 30 Rock.

Feist on Sesame Street.

the hold steady’s “Constructive

Summer.”

MgMt’s “Kids.”

Hillary comes this close

to becoming president.

Scrabulous, r.i.P.

Come on!

Really?

Menu calorie counts ruin every fast-food meal.

Suspiciously young Chinese gymnasts.

the republican Party insults

our collective intelligence.

a theater in berlin releases tear gas at

a play based on a children’s book.

the Baltimore

Sun subplot in The Wire.

Alan Ball’s True Blood disappoints.

Sheldon Silver kills congestion pricing.

the National Review might as

well be written by sean hannity

at this point …… likewise with

Bill Kristol’s column in the

Times.

David Mamet fatigue.

the waning bush administration is still

inspiring excellent books about its own idiocy.

Gladiator heels.

Michelle’s Narciso

Election Night dress.

completely ridiculous?

Hillary becomes

secretary of State.

Rudy goes down.

Bang on a Can’s David Lang wins a long-

deserved Pulitzer.

The series finale of The Wire.

John Adams on

hbo.

Nadal versus Federer at

wimbledon.

Michael Phelps.

Katie Couric gets serious.

“Bush’s War” on Frontline.

Laurence Fishburne as

Thurgood Marshall.

Shepard Fairey makes history with

a little help from some guy named

obama …

cartoonists alison bechdel’s and david rees’s

collections of Dykes to Watch Out For and Get

Your War On, respectively.

Waterfalls guy olafur eliasson’s

electric-fan installation at

MoMa.

ada louise huxtable’s On Architecture.

Mad Men–inspired sales of Frank

O’Hara.

the all-documentary

Maysles Cinema opens

in harlem.

Kay Ryan is named poet

laureate.

composer Elliott Carter turns 100 this year—and

is writing music for his own centennial tributes.

… because polling whiz

Nate Silver was right on the

money!

Michelle’s Narciso Election

Night dress. admirably ambitious?

The series finale of The

Shield.

that video of Boston

Dynamics’ demonic robot

dog.Iron Man.

br

ill

ian

t

airlines start charging extra

for luggage.

Massive layoffs,

everywhere.

Prop 8.

Randy Jackson Presents:

America’s Best Dance Crew.

2008: the year the stock market

tumbled, Wall Street collapsed, and our governor resigned in shame. Where were we when this all went down? Glued to our TV sets, watching a revived SNL, dancing around to “I Kissed a Girl” (and we liked it), and gasping in awe when Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal. America mourned for Heath Ledger, David Foster Wallace, and The Wire and celebrated Britney’s comeback, Federer’s triumph, and a squat little robot named Wall-E. Then, in the wink of an eye, along came Sarah Palin, and we couldn’t see anything else—until a certain historical moment, one of audacious hope. And those were just the biggies. Herewith, everything else that happened in this momentous year.

The year-end mega-maTrIX

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