But tacos are one ferocious reason for debate. Anyone who’s lived in California at any point usually detests all of New York’s taco options. Others who rely on tacos for cheap and hearty sustenance during or after a night of drinking have their own special spots that serve “the best” breakfast taco to cure their pain. The problem is, most breakfast tacos are amazing after a night of picklebacks and bad decisions. How can we trust these folks to know what good tacos are?

Chef Jon Matsubara is chef de cuisine at Japengo in Waikiki, an Asian fusion restaurant serving island classics and seasonal tasting menus. He said Hawaiian food has seen positive change during his career. “We are using more local ingredients than ever before and have been able to share our progress through various social media channels,” he said. “I am equally excited and honored to play an active role in the Hawaiian food movement.”

A native upstate New Yorker from Buffalo who arrived in 1984 and has chronicled her time and observations of NYC in her latest memoir, Life in New York: How I Learned to Love Squeegee Men, Token Suckers, Trash Twisters and Subway Sharks. Pedersen has already established herself as a successful writer, so this memoir doesn’t follow the upward mobility storyline of “country-girl-to-big-city-slicker.” Rather, Pedersen writes about the ever-changing history and culture of NYC--spanning the 1600s to the 18^th century to the present

Fair founder Leanne Stella sees the Fair’s mission as “a way to showcase artists that underscore the cultural zeitgeist that is Harlem.”  Launched in May to coincide with the internationally recognized Frieze art fair, it embraces a unique criteria—the 21^st century artist as a nomad, a creator whose nationality, ethnicity, gender or religion is combined with a global consciousness.

Since opening the doors of its current location in April of 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre has offered longform improvisational and sketch comedy classes and a packed, 7-night schedule of cheap and edgy performances to a varied audience. Perhaps because the cost of entry is so low, or perhaps because of the artistic and collaborative nature of UCB improv itself, the theater exudes a noticeably low-key, friendly vibe that imbues the entire experience; it feels comfortable, like hanging out with a roomful of friends you’ve never met. 

In her screenwriting and directorial debut, Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior is engrossing, provocative, and entirely inappropriate. Laced with Akhavan’s unquestionable flare for frames and motion (or lack thereof), the film explores the depths of sexuality within a cultural context, posing realities that are heartbreakingly honest and widely unexplored, often at the same time.  

These are all characters embedded in American childhood and how we remember them is due to the careful process Jones employed as an animator for WB Inc. He saw his characters as actors themselves, taking anthropomorphism to a new level in the cartoon sphere. The exhibit begins with layout drawings and detailed notes Jones wrote next to the sketchy preliminary drawings of Bugs. Next to the figure he would write how to form the movement: “In a walk: humans, rabbits, or ducks, the shoulders are always an opposite angle to the hips,” and when Bugs is tired “think of a dollar sign” for his shape. 

The Met’s own collection of El Greco’s religious paintings, portraits, and the incomparable rare landscape of the artist’s, The View of Toledo, is the finest outside of the Prado’s in Madrid.  Added to this, the generous loans of six other works from the Hispanic Society of America make this a special treat for the viewer. (Concurrently, three El Greco pictures which cannot be removed, are on view at The Frick Collection.) The comprehensive display can be seen in one room and if at first, it may not seem expansive enough for the jaded gallery-hopper, it is truly an embarrassment of riches.  

The approach of Seymour Boardman (1921-2005) to visual structure evolved from his earlier works which evidenced a concern with expressive painted surfaces. After losing the use of his left hand during World War II, Boardman resumed his art studies in France from 1946-1949. “Visual structure” played a major role in his approach. Boardman moved from the use of gestural paint strokes to formally composed canvases that are specific in the use of color, shape placement, and line. 

Brooklyn Museum’s long-term installation Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn brings objects from the museum’s extensive collection and unites them thematically. Rather than visit different galleries representing specific time periods and/or cultures, this singular space set on the main floor provides an intimate archive of works from across the globe that range from antiquity to the contemporary.