Today it was announced that the City Parks Foundation would announce a portion of its upcoming 26th SummerStage season through, of course, Twitter. This wil all begin on April 1st, at which point one performance will be announced each day for twenty days. By the end, the full season will be public, which will include over 300 artists at over 100 performances in all five boroughs. more ›

Instead of holing up in your air conditioned apartment this week, why not embrace the heat and swelter under the sky while watching some classic flicks for free? Fresh Air Flicks has this week's full listings, and they're all totally worth melting for. Click through for details (and the original trailers) for our favorites. more ›

Click on the images above for details on 13 other sweet spots for al fresco drinking, including the Extreme WOW (Presidential) Suites in Midtown East, Ortine in Prospect Heights, Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, T.B.D. in Greenpoint, Studio Square in Long Island City, The Diamond in Greenpoint, LIC Bar in Long Island City, Nita Nita in Williamsburg, Huckleberry Bar in East Williamsburg, The Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, Vutera in Williamsburg, 5 Ninth in the Meatpacking District, and The Brooklyn Ice House in Red Hook. more ›

reBar: This spacious bar/restaurant isn't new, but the chef and the menu are, so it's worth a mention for those making dinner plans in somewhat dining-deprived DUMBO. Self-described hippie owner Jason Stevens, who quit his job trading mortgage-backed securities at Merrill Lynch just before the crash, opened reBar in December 2006 in an old tea warehouse dating back the later 19th century. With an elegantly weathered, post-industrial design by the same guy who did the Zipper Factory Theater (RIP), the place has become a favorite watering hole for the locals. ($2 pints from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.!) more ›

It's that time of year again! The Met is readying their roof garden with a site-specific monumental sculpture. On Tuesday, weather permitting, conceptual artist Roxy Paine's dramatic Maelstrom piece, a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, will be unveiled, encompassing the nearly 8,000-square-foot outdoor space. more ›

On Friday a new Public Art Fund-organized group show opened at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, which will remain open through September of next year. Titled Trapdoor, the outdoor installation "features new commissions by Ethan Breckenridge, Martha Friedman and Sara Greenberger Rafferty, and recent works by Francis Cape. By using or making reference to recognizable objects whose properties are exaggerated or altered in one way or another, these artists convey an overarching sense of transition or metamorphosis in works that appear to be changing appearance, moving, disappearing or melting. In each case, there is an element of the unexpected, of things appearing delightfully out of the ordinary; as if the viewer has passed through a portal and entered into some kind of conceptual wonderland." A delicious wonderland containing giant waffles. more ›

If "butter" flavored popcorn and Sour Patch Kids aren’t your ideal movie snack food, then you'll probably find the New York City Food Film Festival much more palatable. Starting Saturday at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens, the festival will pair 18 movies with relevant munchies under the night sky. George Motz, who started the festival last year with chef Harry Hawk, says he wanted to create “a cinematic scratch 'n sniff where you can not only watch a food film but eat the food being shown in that film.” Which explains why Sweeney Todd isn't being screened. more ›

Do New Yorkers have a love-hate relationship with their outdoor spaces? Believe it or not, it seems they do. While many would put themselves in a compromising position for a few square-feet of greenery, The NY Times reports on a few who find their outdoor space a burden. more ›

All signs, and weathervanes, point towards the upcoming outdoor summer concert season, which is just around the corner. The River to River Festival is kicking things off with a nod to the past, featuring Wire at the Seaport Music Festival stage. Why should you care? Unlike other 70s bands that have been over-saturating the concert circuit, these guys haven't taken a stage in the U.S. in quite some time; their last show was in Spain in 2004.

Wire came to prominence in the late 70s during the cultural revolution of punk in the UK. Their art-school approach set them apart from brasher contemporaries, where they expanded the sonic boundaries of not just punk, but rock music in general. From R.E.M., the Cure and Guided by Voices to Minor Threat and Black Flag, from Blur and the birth of Britpop up until Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, Wire’s influence has been one of most significant in the past 30 years.