THE APPROVAL MATRIX Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.
82 new york | august 19–september 1, 2019
lowbrow
brilliant
despicable
highbrow
PHOTOGRAPHS: U.K. GOVERNMENT (JOHNSON); COURTESY THE ART ST AND MOMA PS1 (KENNY); NBC (B LES); FOTOGRAFÍAS—ARCH MADR D.ES/W K MED A (DOM NGO); COURTESY OF THE ART ST AND 47 CANAL, NEW YORK (PÉREZ); BARNEYSNY/TW TTER (BARNEYS); TEENYB SCU T/TW TTER (FAC AL RECOGN T ON); © THE MAUR CE SENDAK FOUNDAT ON, COURTESY OF THE MORGAN L BRARY & MUSEUM (SENDAK); BOBBY DOHERTY (CHEESE); ZACH D LGARD/HBO (TORRES); WARNER BROS (THE K TCHEN); GERALD SLOTA (THE WATCHER); M CHAELAVEDON/ NSTAGRAM (RATAJKOWSK ); KYL E JENNER/ NSTAGRAM (PETALS); GWYNETHPALTROW/NSTAGRAM (DOUBLE-DATE); K MKARDASH AN/ NSTAGRAM (T GHTS); PETER KRAMER/HBO (SUCCESS ON); NETFL X (THE OA); SAVLOVESSW FT/TW TTER (SW FT); TYDOLLAS GN/ NSTAGRAM (HOT G RL SUMMER); FOUR LOKO/TW TTER (FOUR LOKO); BADGALR R / NSTAGRAM (R HANNA)America’s chief of
Immigration’s poetry:
“Give me your tired and your
poor who can stand on their
own two feet and who will not
become a public charge.”A video sent out to cops by the
head of the Sergeants
Benevolent Association calls
black people“monsters”and
public housing a “war zone.”Stephen Ross is opening a superluxe members-only supper
club in the Hudson Yards building where he will live, which will
make the next Trump fund-raiser much moreconvenient.Boris Johnson: Brexit
“do or die.” So death’s an
option for whom, exactly?Tumblr—which Yahoo paid
$1.1 billion for back in
2013, when it still had lots
ofpornon it—reportedly
gets sold off for $3 million.Amazon’s facial-
recogintion software can
now detectfear.(What’s
there to be afraid of?)Facebook’s been getting
what you said through
Facebook transcribed.Barneys’ rubble.Plácido Domingo had
no idea that his reportedly
wet, sloppy kisses and
late-night phone calls
to opera singers whose
careers he could
make or break were not
always consensual.Newark’s government
distributes expired bottled
water to citizens trying to
avoid lead poisoning.Better make the most of the
end of “Hot Girl Summer.”Rihanna dressed like a gloriouscat toyfor
the annual Crop Over festival in Barbados.Skip and Ping, gay penguins living at the zoo in
Berlin, took such good care of a rock they tried to
adopt that they were given aneggtotrytohatch.NorthWest’stights.Consciously uncoupled
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris
Martindouble-date.Julio Torres makes
stars of his favorite
shapes, like a
HappyMealtoy
and “a square.”Like Shiv onSuccession,we also
believe we’re ahaircutaway from
world domination.... Taylor Swift,drunk
on Instagram.A University of Leeds study of
soccer fans says watching the
game raises your heart rate as
much as a mild cardio workout.NYC is heating uptwice as
fastas the U.S. as a whole—
up 3.9 degrees since 1895.“All Gloria Steinem and
shit”:The Kitchen’s empty
girl-powerpandering.PumpkinSpice Lattes return
Aug tillThe “Watcher” house
sells at a $400Kbad-
jujudiscount.Olivia Jade, media
criticon Instagram ...If you’re not yet buzzed,Somebody had to
clean up after Travis
Scott filled Kylie
Jenner’s home with
rosepetals.DrakegetsBeatles’Abbey
Roaddiss tattoo.TheOAgets canceled, unless
you’re a fan who believes The OA
is justreal life.New York’s year of
suspension of the statute of
limitations begins for child-
sexual-abusevictims.Sardonic bard of
radicalism Nell Zink’s
new novel,Doxology.EllePérez’sbus-shelter
exhibition, from sun to sun.White Flights,Jess Row’s
graceful essay collection on
whiteness in American literature.Simone Biles makes
history twice at the
U.S. Gymnastics
Championships.Devin Kenny’s racial justice
hack, rootkits rootwork,
at MoMa PS1.Wild!Maurice Sendak’s
set designs at the
Morgan Library.Delicate men freakout
over Emily Ratajkowski’s
Harper’s Bazaar armpit hair.European cheese will soon get
tariffedat 100 percent.
Miniature horses get
okayed as service
animals on airlines.The petition to rename
Fifth Avenue in front of
Trump Tower after Obama.OBAMA AVENUE
America buying
Greenland.