SUNDAY, MARCH 2 2014 >>>

1. The Academy Awards are tonight. There's plenty of speculation about who's likely to win, along with conversation about who's worthy of the awards. Team Walkie Talkie has our money on American Hustle or 12 Years A Slave. Speaking of the golden naked dudes, there are not one but two local venues at which you can put on your Oscar Sunday best and savor the festivities with hundreds of other cineastes. The Olympia Film Society rolls out the red carpet at 4 p.m. in front of the Capitol Theater. The Grand Cinema opens its Oscars party at 5 p.m. in Tacoma's Theatre on the Square. 

2. The Hub in Gig Harbor hosts a Mardi gras party from noon to 3 p.m. in its bitchin' outdoor tent. While Dave Fleschner and Alan Hager perform soulful New Orleans blues and jazz, The Hub's kitchen will fire up Louisiana cuisine. Expect drink specials.

3. Writer Glen Retief grew up in a South African game park during the apartheid era but emigrated to the U.S. in 1994. Before landing in academia he worked as an instructor of homeless HIV-positive substance abusers, a needle exchange advocate, an English as a second language teacher, and a teacher of high school students with learning disabilities. He has lived in Cape Town, New York City, Tallahassee, London, Madrid, Guadalajara and Richmond, Kentucky. Retief - thanks to the Rainbow Center, Oasis Youth Center and King's Book - will read from his book, The Jack Bank, at 2 p.m. at Tacoma's Rainbow Center.

4. The Esoterics presents their first classical concert in a series of three "choral ecologies" that feature music about three components of the Earth's biosphere: the ocean, the forest and the atmosphere. In OCEANA, The Esoterics bring to the concert stage four modern works whose texts are narratives of our relationship with the most abundant natural resource on our planet. The waves of music begin at 3 p.m. in St John's Episcopal Church in Olympia.

5. Howie Mandel will perform at 5 and 8 p.m. at the Little Creek Casino in Shelton.

LINK: Sunday, March 2 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area