Oscar weekend means you already know what you’re doing Sunday night. But here’s a few ways to spend your offline countdown to the show:

New York:

Thousands of fans are expected to descend upon the New York Comic Con this weekend. Good thing there are more than a few celebrities to spare: Stephen King, Stan Lee, Wes Craven, Gary Coleman, Heather Matarazzo, and Hayden Panettiere are just a few of the seriously big names scheduled to attend. [Link]

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s the Sex Workers’ Art Show, a burlesque complete with out of work, at work, and semi-naked “professionals” of all kinds. Definitely NSFW. Unless of course you’re some kind of professional yourself. [Link]

The Los Angeles and Chicago weekend events are after the jump.

Los Angeles:

Legendary and recently honored at Oprah’s Legends Ball, poet Maya Angelou will be speaking on Friday night as part of The Music Center Speaker Series. Subscribe to the series as a whole and see Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Joan Didion, and a few other of my favorite finds. [Link]

James Taylor (love him) is giving two shows this weekend, but it’s all sold out stuff. He was the latest recipient of the Grammy MusiCARES award, though – so maybe in the spirit of giving someone out front will have a ticket to spare. [Link]

Chicago:

Joan Collins is hosting a lunchtime signing Friday for her new book, “The Art of Living Well”. Ask her about her MySpace page if you can — she’s got one, I checked! [Link]

There’s an open casting call for a new reality show, “The Great Gay Escape”, and while I have no idea what sort of credentials the production company running the thing has, the madness of an open casting call is always sort of interesting to see. [Link]