Our roving photographer reminds us of the colors, sounds and tastes of NYC in the summer. Do you know about NYC’s oldest library? Founded in 1754 it’s housed in a beautiful townhouse on the UES. Head to Union Square for free ice cream and Madison Square Park for free concerts. And check out a fab free virtual concert too. Love comedy? Don’t miss Stone and Stone at Birdland. Benefits are back in the Hampton’s and our Broadway Babe, Randie Levine Miller attended Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation event. Valerie Smadone has discovered some fabulous new talent.

July 20 @5PM. Join Us for a Live FB Celebration

We’re excited to celebrate the audiobook version of Gayle Martz’s wonderful memoir, It’s in the Bag, that tells the story of how she founded SHERPA Bag and changed traveling with pets forever. Media personality Valerie Smaldone, who heads the audiobook group of The Three Tomatoes publishing, narrated the book and she will be interviewing Gayle. Just go to Facebook or YouTube at 6 PM ET on July 20.

July 18. Free Ice Cream in Union Square

In honor of National Ice Cream Day, a Booking.com Ice Cream Truck will be serving free ice cream all day.  Lucky guests who score a booking – or the “gelato-ry” – will be treated to an overnight stay in a private ice cream truck with a cold confectionary packed itinerary featuring a Downtown Manhattan ice cream shop walking tour, tickets to the Museum of Ice Cream and more. Get the scoop.

New York City’s Oldest Library

For many Tomatoes, this may be NYC’s best kept secret. The New York Society Library, founded in 1754,  is for members only, but anyone can join (individual membership is $270 a year) and entitles you to check out books, use their beautiful reading and study spaces, and enjoy other benefits and events.

Their collection includes nearly 300,000 volumes with many rare and unique items too. The library is housed in an Italianate town house, built in 1917, designed by Trowbridge and Livingston, the architects of the Wall Street headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. and the St. Regis Sheraton Hotel. The Library is filled with art and other objects from all periods of its history, including its original charter granted by George III. Located at 53 E. 79^th Street. Learn more.

Summer in the City

Check out this week’s photos from our roving photographer, Nicole Freezer Rubens (author of the Long Pause and the Short Breath.) The colors, sounds and tastes of an urban summer are all around us. I enjoy taking advantage of this slower, emptier time in New York, the early sunrises and late sunsets.

I love the feel of continuously moving between air conditioning and humidity that reminds me that it is July. I am used to and secretly welcome the smell of baking garbage on the sidewalks on collection day and stepping on softened asphalt after several warm days in a row. There is nothing quite like summer in our hazy, hot, never sleeps city!

Wednesday Night Concerts at Madison Square Park

In collaboration with Carnegie Hall, Music on the Green is a free, unticketed concert series inspired by Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest that brings artists from the Hall’s Ensemble Connect to reflect on the themes of the exhibition. Concerts are held every Wednesday from July 21 through August 11 at 6 – 7 PM on the Oval Lawn. Get the schedule.

July 29. LIVE Virtual Event with Ann Kittredge: American Songbook

Open Arts presents this free program (and many others.) Watch Ann Kittredge’s acclaimed show “Movie Nite” where you will hear songs from classic films from the 20th century. Songs include Stormy Weather, The Man Who Got Away, and The Way We Were.

Open Arts is a program of the nonprofit Sing for Hope and an extension of our mission of “arts for all.” Founded in New York City in 2006. All performances are free of charge — and 100% of donations received go directly to supporting artists while most our stages are dark. HOLD YOUR SPOT FOR FREE.

Aug. 3.  Stone and Stone live at BIRDLAND

Our favorite comic duo, Stone and Stone (whose mom is the fab Tomato Merrill Stone) will be performing LIVE at Birdland. THE LINEUP is hosted by the absolutely hysterical and adorable Susie Mosher!

Cover charge is only $.99 cents if you buy your ticket on line. $10 at the door. Get the details. Birdland, 314 West 44th St. | August 3 at 7 PM

Long Island Interior Designer Wins COVID Humanitarian Award

Keith Baltimore, Baltimore Design Group, was recently award with the prestigious HEARTS Award for his role in co-founding DesignGivers. Keith along with Annette Jaffe (Annette Jaffe Interiors) and Kim Poulos (KGI Design Group) founded this unique non-profit through which designers could give of their time and talent to help people be more comfortable while isolated, working and studying at home, and at the same time helping to feed the hungry by supporting Feeding America and American Cancer Society; significant donations so far of $31,212 from private and business donors include more than 60 participating designers.