If dashing out of the house at the sound of "Turkey in the Hay" defined your summers as a kid, now you can indulge your grownup palate with Van Leeuwen's artisanal ice cream. The Van Leeuwens have been patrolling New York City in their yellow trucks since 2008, selling everything from straight vanilla to Giandujia, a blend of Michel Cluizel chocolate and Piedmont hazelnuts. Pints are also available at Whole Foods.
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If you're a closet vampire fanatic but don't want to be seen lugging a copy of Twilight to the shore, consider Justin Cronin's The Passage. It takes place in 2118, 100 years after inevitable disaster results from the U.S. military's attempt to engineer a race of super-humans. Cronin, an English professor at Rice and graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, writes of the remaining population searching for a new energy source so they can light up the world and keep the vampires at bay. Ron Charles of The Washington Post writes that "by the third chapter, trash was piling up in our house because I was too scared to take out the garbage at night. It's a macabre pleasure to see what a really talented novelist can do with these old Transylvanian tropes."
When it's this hot, water-gun battles are one of the rare fights in which everybody wins. Popular Mechanics compiled this list of alarmingly high-tech hydro-weaponry. It includes a battery-pressurized pistol and a gun that can use any water (or, nastily, soda) bottle as ammo. There's also the good 'ol bucket-loaded pump gun for the technophobes. Our personal favorite is the Super Soaker Sneak Attack 4-Way, which can shoot around corners (!!) and practically guarantees victory in your water war.
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Follow the World Cup fever with a grape the South Africans have claimed as their own, Chenin Blanc. Think of it as halfway between an un-oaked Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc: ripe and juicy with a great balance of fruit and acid. Lemon and pineapple flavors with a bit of lime zest—the smell that bursts just as you slice into a lime. One good label in the $10-$20 range is Ken Forrester. Following the soccer theme to the champions' home, Rias Baixas is located in the northwest tip of Spain. This is the Spanish home of the Albariño grape. A little richer, with a bit more body than Chenin, Albariño shows more of the tropical fruit flavors (think mango and papaya in addition to the pineapple). In the $15 range, it’s hard to beat Burgans for sipping in summer's heat. Food pairings run toward fish and meat off the grill. And for something completely different: Pink, German, Bubbles. Three words you never thought you see together, but the combination is both shocking and delicious. Fritz Allendorf's Festival Rose Secco is a dry, slightly effervescent rosé—"frizzante" for the purists—made from Pinot Noir. You can find it in the $12-15 range.— Matt Stevens
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Instead of venturing out into the blistering, 100 degree heat, turn up the A/C, plant yourself on the couch, and get lost in Rubicon, a thrilling new show about an analyst for a New York intelligence agency who soon discovers that all within the company isn't what it seems. It's a throwback to espionage films of the '70s like The Conversation and Three Days of the Condor. "Each [AMC show] is the best at what they're doing," Rubicon creator Henry Bromell told The Daily Beast, "whether that's period drama, taut drug-fueled adrenaline ride, or conspiracy thriller."
Capsizing doesn't seem so bad when it's 100 degrees outside, which is why this searing summer is the perfect time to learn how to kayak. It's also a fantastic sport for anyone who can't bear to go to spin class on a beautiful day, providing both a cardio and strength-building workout on cooling open water. If it's your first time, you might want to go inflatable. Inflatables are more buoyant, easier to climb back into after you've flipped, and more compact—a big bonus if you end up taking it out only once or twice a year.
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Arcade Fire, the multi-instrumentalist septet, first rose to prominence with their 2004 debut Funeral, which established their penchant for soaring anthems like "Wake Up"— featured in the outstanding trailer for Spike Jonze's film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. On The Suburbs, the Springsteen-channeling Canadians paint an at-once bleak and uplifting portrait of suburban complacency reminiscent of those halcyon summer days you spent cruising through the 'burbs with tennis balls in your bicycle spokes. Entertainment Weekly called it "a work of impressively fervent majesty."
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When it's too hot even to fire up the grill, try Bon Appetit's tomato-watermelon salad with feta cheese. The delicious mix of sweet and savory and the high water-content of the tomatoes and watermelon help keep your body cool.
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A tan might look stylish now, but you don't want to look 80 before you hit 65. UV radiation is the main environmental cause of skin aging. Fortunately, sunscreen has come a long way since the Coppertone baby was born. This SPF 25 moisturizer by artisanal pharmacist C.O. Bigelow also has Vitamin C to help even out skin tone and can be applied on both the body and face.
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Want to get away? Cool off in Joan Rivers' luxurious, Fifth Avenue penthouse. This revealing documentary of the legendary motormouth comedienne takes you on a year-long journey through Rivers' rocky 76th year as she tries to mount a furious comeback. The "convulsively funny" film "brandishes her deeply held hurts, fears, prejudices, poor judgment, and bad taste," says The New York Times. "What I didn't want it to be was one of those ass-kissing biographies that you see on the Biography channel," Rivers told The Daily Beast. "I didn't want this to turn into self-congratulations and everybody loves her, and oh, she's such a good person. You watch some of those and you go, 'Oh, come on! Mel Gibson is a Nazi! Say it!'"
Although the French prison system may not be an ideal summer destination, A Prophet's story of Malik El Djebena—an illiterate, 19-year-old convict who, through a series of hits and drug deals, slowly rises up the ranks of the French prison system to become a crime czar—will have the summertime jam " Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" stuck in your head for days. It's the French Scarface, and a film that Rolling Stone called "a new crime classic."
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Nothing quite cools you off like getting soaked while flying through the air. There are water parks all over America, but one that's consistently voted the best is in New Braunfels, Texas, midway between Austin and San Antonio. The park is called Schlitterbahn, which means "slippery road" in German, and features a mile-long inner-tube chute that takes 45 minutes to complete and a 1,000-foot-long roller coaster powered by jets of water. The park is fed by a natural spring, making this wet destination worth a special trip.
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