WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29 2014 >>>

1. Northwest music scene break-out since 2004, High Ceiling plays alongside some of the biggest names in jam-rock-reggae: John Brown's Body, Rubblebucket, Clinton Fearon, Kyle Hollingsworth, Junior Reid and many others. Roots reggae, world, trance and jazz sounds are infused with improvisation, defining High Ceiling's unique presence in the Northwest music and eclectic arts scenes. Catch the band with IWayne and Black Am I at 8 p.m. in Jazzbones.

2. Between 10-11 a.m., Red Wind Casino will cut the ribbon for its new 600-space parking garage. After the ribbon cutting, head inside for a $6 Sloppy Joe and fries meal in The Medicine Creek Deli. Then, hit the Craps table.

3. Today is the last day you can grab shigoku oysters at Salty's at Redondo Beach. For the uninitiated, the shigoku oyster has a light, clean taste of cucumber and salt with a finish of water chestnut and Jerusalem artichoke. Salty's tops each oyster with local huckleberries poached in champagne and then finish with a lemon thyme-infused verjus mignonette. It's the perfect balance of sweet and tangy flavors.

4. The rich get richer, the poor get the picture, as noted U.S. policy experts Midnight Oil once said. The gap in the U.S. between the rich and the poor has never been wider. As we learn in the film Inequality for All, earnings for the "1 percent" have doubled in the last 35 years, while wages for workers have diminished dramatically. The film features Robert Reich -professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member - as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy. Catch the film at 6:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater, then stick around for a post-film discussion.

5. Barbara Ehrenreich's 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is about her cross-country odyssey as a voluntary member of the working poor. Ehrenreich believes that even as poverty rates - and income inequality - climb, it's only getting harder to be poor. Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland has selected Ehrenreich's groundbreaking study of our nation's working poor for the 2014 Tacoma Reads community reading program.Throughout the month of October, the Tacoma Public Library has been hosting book discussions in various forms, covering topics such as income inequality, the death of the American Dream, the destruction of the middle class and certainly the battle to raise the minimum wage. What is the impact of raising the minimum wage on workers and businesses? Will it substantively address rising inequality and the broad decline of the middle class or, as some assert, result in more youth unemployment, higher prices and increased automation? Discuss it at 7 p.m. at the Tacoma Public Library Main Branch in downtown Tacoma.

LINK: Wednesday, Oct. 29 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area