EVENT: This weekend marked the opening of Water Taxi Beach, and if today's weather is beckoning you to some sandy shores, we suggest heading over there. Their beach blanket bash includes DJs Soul2Soul and Steven Retas, Nef Nunez, Brian Coxx and Brian Burnside -- all on hand to soundtrack your tan. 12 p.m. // Water Taxi Beach [2 Borden Ave, Long Island City] // Free EXHIBIT: Over the weekend Woody Guthrie’s Coney Island Years opened......

MUSIC: Frequenter of the Hotel Chelsea, Country Joe McDonald (pictured at Woodstock) will be taking the Joe's Pub stage tonight to perform a tribute to Woody Guthrie where he "deftly conveys all the charm, talent, and social and political consciousness of the legendary folksinger from Oklahoma." 7pm // Joe’s Pub [425 Lafayette St] // $30 EVENT: Move over spelling bee...The Define-a-Thon Word Challenge hits Brooklyn tonight. The competitive word challenge is good for the spelling-impaired,......

READING: We've been gushing over filmmaker, performing artist and writer, Miranda July's new book (and its accompanying website), No One Belongs Here More that You. Tonight she reads from her collection of short stories at Paula Cooper Gallery. There she is at left, typing away, and you can listen to her reading on her MySpace. Reminder: She'll be at 192 Books tomorrow night, call 212.255.4022 for reservations. 7pm // Paula Cooper Gallery [534 W 21st......

Robert Hillburn of the L.A. Times finds the phenomenon of people latching onto songs as anthems (when the songs were never meant to be that in the first place) fascinating, the current example being Outkast's Bombs Over Baghdad. "OutKast's Big Boi was more than a little surprised when tennis pro Jennifer Capriati requested recently that "Bombs" be played as a sign of support for the troops in Iraq as she took the court for a......