SummerStage in Central Park.

Music
Oumou Sangare + Les Nubians + Asa
From the funkiest region of Mali, Oumou Sangare brings her vocal brilliance to Central Park’s SummerStage.

Books
Polestar Poetry Series
Brandon Scott Gorrell and Zachary German read their work, and are joined by fellow traveler Ellen Kennedy, author of Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs.

Street fairs
USO Avenue of the Americas Summerfest
Succumb to the lure of churros and tchotckes.

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You won’t have to wait for a meteor shower to get “starstruck” in Central Park. Starting today, visitors can enjoy free audio tours by some of NYC’s biggest VIPs. Small green signs throughout the green space provide a phone number and code for voiceover narrations by more than 35 celebs.

Let Whoopi Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld and Sarah Jessica Parker school you on the history behind some of their favorite park sites, ranging from the Reservoir to Bethesda Fountain. The two- to three-minute audio tours are given directly on visitors’ cell phones, eliminating the need for ghastly tourist-branding guide devices. Tour guide Martha Stewart would agree, it’s definitely a good thing. View the complete list of people and places at centralparknyc.org/audio.—Pearly Huang

If you heard sounds walking through the pedestrian tunnel in front of Central Park Zoo today, it wasn’t that double espresso you had at lunch. Until September 10, this area of the park is being transformed into a sound installation by artist John Morton, called Sound Tunnel. Listen to what it sounds like here.

Also opening today on the water at South Street Seaport , Pier 17, is a unique gallery-cum-eco-habitat, The Waterpod. Built by four local artists entirely out of found and donated materials, the off-grid home will host multimedia art and talks on sustainable living. With sea levels predicted to rise, and real-estate prices probably rising faster, it’s worth checking out where you’ll be living in 20 years, unless we take on board the Waterpodders’ tips for sustainable living.

King Lear

Theater
King Lear
An “on-the-run” outdoor version of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy in Central Park by New York Classical Theater.

Clubs
Été d’Amour: Tony Humphries
A six-hour set in the penthouse of the Hotel on Rivington?! You’re going to want to R.S.V.P. to this one.

Festivals
Loving Day
Can you feel the love? You can with DJs, free BBQ and free beer for the first hour.

Mind and body
Jivamukti yoga in the park
All levels are welcome at this class in Central Park.

LGBT
Queens Lesbian & Gay Pride
Multicultural joy is the theme at this Jackson Heights march and festival.

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See the slide show
Photo by Josh Blank

For the peeps who didn’t get their J-pop fix at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri festival earlier last month, there was yesterday’s Japan Day in Central Park. Some zealots arrived at 8am to watch a four-mile race; others showed up fashionably late in outlandish anime-inspired apparel and went huntin’ for free gyoza dumplings, photo ops with a roaming Hello Kitty, ice-chopping karate demos and free jazz. See more anime nuttiness in this full-on slide show.

Doggie Pedal Parade

Celebrate all things Japanese with Central Park’s Japan Day. Watch the International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan smash blocks of ice with their bare hands and listen to Osaka duo Orange Pekoe’s bossa-jazz fusion. Compete in or watch the four-mile Japan Run and fuel up afterward with free samples of gyoza dumplings.

Celebrate the last day of bike month by stocking up on bike gear at The Brooklyn Bike Jumble. Pick out some accessories for you and your pup and ride over to the second annual Doggie Pedal Parade in Tompkins Square Park where canines will be carried on trailers and in baskets to help raise awareness of the benefits of pet adoption.

The concept behind Stewart Matthew’s “Green Aria” ScentOpera at Guggenheim is so intriguing, we’re sniffing the air in anticipation. “Scent microphones” will pump out perfume mixed by fragrance designer Christophe Laudamiel; they’re there to enhance an original piece of music composed by Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson. Each perfume—earth, fire, etc.—has been created to invoke a special meaning within the context of the narrative. As long as there’s no reference to Dutch ovens, you should be good to go.

Find the details on this and more here.

Yes we’re serious. You mean you would let a few snowflakes get in the way of scoring “Smart-Ass Points” at The Big Quiz Thing? Or paying tribute to John Leonard at a memorial service in a glistening Central Park?

Yeah, us too.

Instead, you can take a pick from our recommendations of what to do when you’re snowed in, and then have some poor dude brave the elements to deliver it to you.