Bowen Yang Thinks This Artist Nails What It’s Like Living in New York

5

Chani App

I used to be very skeptical of astrology. I had read too many Carl Sagan books in college, and I thought, well, it’s all pseudoscience. This app is more about understanding your chart as a way to develop yourself — understanding where you’re going, where you came from and steering based on that information.

6

‘Oh, Mary!’ (Off Broadway)

Just on a joke level, incredibly funny, but then on a narrative level, so well-constructed and surprising. You know what happens in terms of the Lincoln story, but the way it’s approached is so new. There’s something honest about Mary Todd Lincoln feeling, as the war rages on, completely entrapped in her own world of turmoil. And with that subject matter being very grave and very heavy, for Cole Escola to write the funniest comedy show is pretty remarkable.

7

‘Happy Together’

A queer film at a time when queer films hadn’t really been blueprinted. It’s about this gay couple from Hong Kong who have a really toxic, abusive, violent dynamic. They go to Argentina to salvage their relationship. Then while they’re there, they sort of isolate themselves. It ends up being this beautiful story about moving on from love.

8

Alison Roman’s Pork Noodle Soup Recipe

The way she builds the soup base is so simple and yet so flavorful. It’s just frying the pork a little bit, and then soy sauce or tamari, onions and that’s basically it. I made this soup for my mother when she came to visit me pretty recently, and she was blown away. She goes, “Who makes this?” I say, “You’re not going to believe this. It’s an American white woman.”

9

‘Couples Therapy’

It’s not quite reality. It’s not quite documentary. It’s Orna Guralnik, who is this couples counselor, and what’s remarkable about the production of the show is that they’ve replicated her office on a sound stage. The people know they’re being filmed. But on the whole, it’s incredibly real and vulnerable, and the camera catches things that you can’t see anywhere else.

10

Edward Hopper Collection at the Whitney

I think Hopper’s work has always been the perfect distillation of being in New York. You look at a Hopper painting now, and it’s like people being in rooms regarding the arrangement of the city, which is people in close proximity who are still isolated on some level.