Amorepacific skin products

Spas & Sport
Complimentary Facials
It’s blistering hot outside, so cool off with a refreshing (no-cost!) facial courtesy of Amorepacific and Sephora. A celebrity aesthetician will be providing minifacials from 1 to 7pm, giving visitors a skin-fortifying treatment tailored to their skin type.

Books
Gary Lutz + Jim Krusoe + Zachary Schomberg
Listen to readings from trio of writers with a penchant for the absurd.

Panel
“The Meaning of Skateboarding”
Bret Anthony Johnson (Corpus Christi) and Joel Rice (the McSweeney’s website’s boarding correspondent) discuss how skaters build communities, aspire to become artists and struggle with evil corporate co-opters.

Music
Black Dice
The New York noise deities have never as accessible as they are on their new album Repo. They are unlikely to be this cheap again, too.

Dance
Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Urban Bush Women kick off their 25th-anniversary performance with Shelter and Give Your Hands to Struggle.

Workshop
Bike Commuting 101
Just because hipsters don’t wear helmets doesn’t mean you shouldn’t (that devil-may-care attitude will wear off one day). Learn the basics of bike commuting, from how to properly lock up your ride to the best helmets and gear, and receive a free bike tune-up from Eastern Mountain Sports.

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The other night at Word, the masterful prose stylist Gary Lutz read with Robert Lopez and Blake Butler (who came in all the way from Atlanta to present his kick-ass new book, Ever). They were introduced by Word employee Luca Dipierro, who revealed to me that it was, sadly, his last night working at the store (but not because he didn’t love it; the reasons were more to do economics). In fact, it took all of about five minutes of talking to Dipierro to recognize how passionately he cares about fiction, and I later heard that he’s embarking on a lit-film project, along with author Michael Kimball, to film different writers they admire, reading their work in different places. Butler, the first, reads above in a subway car. Also: For a small store, Word has a solid selection. I got this and this.

Gary Lutz’s debut story collection, originally put out by Knopf in the mid ’90s, has just been revived by the venerable independent publisher Calamari Press. The book has already become a true cult item, and no wonder: It comes charged with humor, humiliation, odd sexual currents, koanlike thought patterns and an artfully gnarled syntax. Experience it for yourself tonight at Word, where Lutz will read from—and celebrate the new printing of—this lost classic.