Matt Berninger of the National. Photograph by Andy Witchger, licensed under CCO 2.0.

Tonight, the sun will begin to set before 8 P.M. once again, a milestone that always fills us with some low-level dread. This is all the more reason to participate in summer fun of all varieties. Here’s what the Review’s staff and friends are looking forward to next week:

Wine & Water Lilies at the New York Botanical Garden, August 17: Between 3 and 6 P.M. next Thursday, come to the New York Botanical Garden for a drink with a side of plants! This recommendation comes from our new intern Izzy Ampil; you can have a water lily–themed cocktail, a glass of wine, or a brownie with marshmallows while wandering among the lotuses. There will also be music.

The National at Madison Square Garden, August 18: Are you feeling vague malaise for no particular reason, which seems to sort of seep into everything, but is also not entirely unpleasant and in fact maybe kind of nice? If you’re not, and you want to be, you should join our web editor, Sophie Haigney, and go see The National, the prolific, excellent, low-grade-sad band whose new album includes a song that goes: “And there you are, sitting as usual / with your golden notebook …”

Annie Baker’s Infinite Life at the Atlantic Theater Company, opening August 18: This new play, an excerpt of which first appeared in the Review’s pages, features five women in chaise longues at a fasting clinic discussing life, sex, and chronic illness. Their exchanges are unforgettable: “You had great sex with him but you left him because he was a screamer,” one woman says. “No he left me,” her friend responds. “He left me. And I was a wreck.” Their conversations probe the connection between physical pain and sexual desire, and much else; they show, in a sense, where conversation can lead. In partnership with the Review, the Atlantic is offering tickets to shows between August 25 and September 10 at a 30 percent discount if you use the code PARIS online at checkout. 

La Cevicheria in the Rockaways, anytime: If you, like many members of the Review’s staff, have not yet been to one of New York’s beaches this year, now is the time for your annual pilgrimage to the Rockaways. Friend of the Review Emma Goldberg recommends this one particular ceviche stand by Beach Ninety-Eighth Street, which, she said, “changed my life.” 

Seinfeld Night with the Brooklyn Cyclones, August 19: The Brooklyn Cyclones are an evergreen summer recommendation: after all, what’s not to like about minor league baseball by the boardwalk and beer at a steep discount? There are also many only-in-Coney-Island quirks, including the presence of the eccentric on-field MC, King Henry. Our former intern Owen Park alerted us to a particularly good evening to go: Seinfeld Night, when the first 2,500 fans to arrive will receive a George Costanza–Marine Biologist bobblehead; there will also be a Seinfeld-themed food buffet and an “Elaine Dancing Contest.”  

John Cale concert in Prospect Park, August 19: The art-pop soloist, avant-garde pioneer, and founding member of the Velvet Underground John Cale will perform in Prospect Park (for free!) as part of an ongoing concert series. This event was submitted for our listings by more Paris Review staff members and friends than anything else all summer, so it is safe to say that there will be some Paris Review tote bags in the audience. 

Roundup: Battery Dance Festival in Rockefeller Park, August 12–18 (Cami Jacobson, engagement editor); Margaret Glaspy at Rough Trade, August 18 (Izzy Ampil, intern); Alex Edelman’s comedy special Just For Us at the Hudson Theater, through August 18 (Emma Goldberg, friend of the Review); Everything Everywhere All At Once in Brooklyn Bridge Park, August 17 (Lily Biggar, friend of the Review); Blues BBQ Festival in Hudson River Park (Cami Jacobson, engagement editor).