30 Frat paradise: Dave Matthews plays Randall’s Island. Expect absolutely no audience overlap with the terrific Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

31Shake off the blockbuster blahs at the closing night of Lincoln Center’s Scanners: New York Video Festival. This year’s slate features Robert Frank’s video work, music videos, and Japanese soft porn.

August

1 In a stoned haze, read Dennis Cooper’s new novel, God Jr., a melancholic take on a pothead father’s attempt to mourn the death of his son.

2 Liked Brad and Angelina’s chemistry in Mr. & Mrs. Smith? They’ve got nothing on William Powell and Myrna Loy in the classic Thin Man romantic comedies, available in a terrific new DVD set.

3 Big Dance Theater founder Paul Lazar opens Major Bang—the most promising performance at this year’s cutting-edge Ice Factory performance festival. Prep for watercooler conversation with Steven Bochco’s Iraq-war TV series, Over There.

4 Songwriter heaven: Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright play Prospect Park. Kitsch hell: Lennon finally arrives on Broadway.

5 The fall film season might as well begin today: Wong Kar-Wai’s rhapsody 2046, Jim Jarmusch’s Palme d’Or–winning Broken Flowers, and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man doc open. (Okay, so does Dukes of Hazzard.)

6 Simón Díaz, the dapper elder statesman of Venezuelan music, plays Queens Theatre in the Park.

7 Every hipster’s favorite Sri Lankan emcee, M.I.A., rocks SummerStage. Get there early. Couch potatoes should watch a sneak preview of Mary-Louise Parker’s new Showtime series, Weeds, about a mother who sells pot.

(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Wire Image)

8 Now that Jay-Z’s made MSG safe for hip-hop, Eminem’s “Anger Management” tour plays the Garden; Weeds premiers tonight.

9 Your last chance to catch the Naumburg Orchestra, celebrating its 100th anniversary in Central Park.

10 Party people can catch Devo at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

11SummerStage goes highbrow, with the Trisha Brown Dance Company; the Brooklyn Bridge Park outdoor screenings go dark with Chinatown.

12 Get a look at the next Avenue Q—if you’re very, very lucky—when the New York International Fringe Festival opens.

13 P.S. 1’s “Warm-Up” series roars on in the courtyard with arty hip-hop by local Lovebug Starski, and a kinetic installation by the collective Xefirotarch.

14 Take the Taconic Parkway to the last performance of Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, or take the subway to Queens for the Noguchi Museum’s soothing “Music in the Garden” series.

15 Apply aloe to your sunburn while cruelly contemplating how to improve your loved ones: Fox slots two hours of its trash show Renovate My Family.

16 Go celebrity-spotting at the Delacorte, with John Guare’s 1971 Tony-winning musical adaptation of Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Kathleen Marshall.

17 Flash back to the eighties with Bret Easton Ellis’s new book, Lunar Park, a wildly self-indulgent ride that mixes autobiography with serial-killer thrills.

18 Indie bands Death Cab for Cutie and the Decembrists play SummerStage. In unrelated news: Campy J-pop entrepreneurs Puffy AmiYumi play Irving Plaza.

19 The summer’s oddest film opens: Romance & Cigarettes, John Turturro’s Bensonhurt musical, stars James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, and—of course!—Mandy Moore.

20 As Neil Diamond wraps up three nights at the Garden, catch another kind of freak show: the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. Staying late? Try the Coney Island Saturday Night Film Series; this week: Class of Nuke ’Em High.

21 The Howl! Festival of East Village Arts kicks off eight days of shows, including a slate of bluegrass hosted by Laura Cantrell and the Wigstock drag legends, hosted by éminence bouffant Lady Bunny.

22 TiVo the Six Feet Under series finale so you can head to Bryant Park for an outdoor screening of Spielberg’s Jaws.

23 Less crowded than Bryant Park, the Central Park Film Festival kicks off with Almost Famous.

Eternal Americana at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, Coney Island.   (Photo: Getty Images)

24 Reimagine Coney Island by looking at the Dreamland Artist Club’s repainted, refurbished, and reinvented old roller coasters, classic marquees, and ads.

25 Only in New York: The outlandish Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia plays insanely fast songs at Joe’s Pub.

26 Fans of the Brazilian film City of God should check out director Fernando Meirelles’s English-language debut, The Constant Gardener.

27 Hit one of New York’s best summer traditions: Williamsburg’s Rooftop Films screens British and American short films in a series called “The British Connection.”

28 See if Terry Gilliam’s long-delayed film Brothers Grimm was worth the wait.

29 The summer’s almost over—and you forgot to catch the Greater New York exhibition of 160 emerging NYC artists, still up at P.S. 1.

30 Because carousel horses are so yesterday, check out the Bronx Zoo’s new Bug Carousel.

31Skip work and head to Arthur Ashe Stadium, where you can spend the whole day feuding with French fans at the U.S. Open.