Viv Chen

2 weeks ago | themolehill.net | Viv Chen

This article contains spoilers for the final episode of White Lotus Season 3. All photos courtesy of HBO. This past Sunday, all my text convos included some variant of are you watching the White Lotus finale tonight!? I love collective TV moments like this. I find comfort in the knowledge that every Sunday night for the past 8 weeks, we were all ordering our favorite Thai takeout and burrowing into the couch, tuning into the percussive paranoia-tinged melody of the theme song.

2 weeks ago | nymag.com | Viv Chen

Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Viv Chen This past winter, I was browsing Pegasus Books in Berkeley when a book the size of a Glossier bubble-wrap pouch caught my eye. Intrigued by the color-blocked cover art overlaid with Japanese characters, I picked it up. The English title read A Dictionary of Color Combinations, by Sanzo Wada. I flipped it open and was hit with instant chromatic euphoria — pages of vivid color swatches tickled my brain in the best way.

2 weeks ago | themolehill.net | Viv Chen

“I’m an oakland clog mom so I HAD to read the rest of the berkeley bowl article. Hilariously accurate, sent it to all my friends!” — Violet, paid reader Good morning!I’m sitting by the window next to the blooming dogwood tree chomping on a Courage Bagel mailed up from LA by Molehill reader Jen (thank you, I am so grateful!). No bagels in the Bay really compare. I was having such a craving for them, so I put out a request on Notes essentially seeking a bagel shopping proxy and Jen replied.

3 weeks ago | themolehill.net | Viv Chen

All three places offer prime people-watching, but my favorite is Berkeley Bowl: a grocery store that is much, much more than just a grocery store. It is an anthropological goldmine. Founded in the ‘70s by Japanese-American “produce guru” Glenn Yasuda and his wife Diane, the store captures the ethos of Northern Californian food culture. Whatever buzzword du jour you want to use—granola, earthy, slow food, farm to table, crunchy—people take their produce VERY seriously here.

1 month ago | marieclaire.com | Viv Chen

In episode 7 of Severance season 2, there is a split-second shot showing a round, white vanity in Gemma’s (Dichen Lachman) suite on the Testing Floor. Was that what I thought it was? I lunged for the remote and rewound. My suspicion was confirmed: It was the Luigi Massoni Dilly Dally, a coveted modular vanity from the ‘60s that looks like something Polly Pocket would own. (I know this because I had once inquired about purchasing one from a vintage furniture dealer on Instagram.