Off-Ramp

LA County Fire Chief: The SuperScooper and the Sky Crane go to every fire to ensure we can get as much water on the fire as quickly as possible to knock it down. If they're not needed we send them back.

After an eight year hiatus, 80's pop band Roxette has returned with a vengeance. Singer and guitarist Per Gessle talks about the band's recent output.

"Beauty is Embarrassing" is about how Wayne White has lived his art through his life and is, THANK GOD, not another damned tortured artist.

If it's about anything, Los Angeles is about friction. Creative friction, social friction, political friction in the form of riots, bombings, shootouts, protests, marches, sit in's, love-in's ... And from the friction comes the wonderful mess that is LA.

Born in East LA, by Cheech Marin, turns 25 this year. This film brought issues of Latino identity and immigration to the big screen with a sense of humor.

A few weeks ago, the Grammy Museum at LA Live unveiled its new Songwriters Hall of Fame gallery, which celebrates the men and women who wrote the soundtrack of our lives. To mark the occasion, they brought in some of the most famous living songwriters to sing and explain their hits. The event was MC'd by songwriter Paul Williams. Through a special collaboration with the Grammy Museum, Off-Ramp presents excerpts from that concert, starting with the dean of American pop songwriters, Hal David, Burt Bacharach's longtime collaborator on hits like "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again."

Eve Diamond is not dead, she's just taking a breather while author Denise Hamilton explores the world of PR firms that mop up messes (and the politicians who need them) in "Damage Control." Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Hamilton about the new book.

You’d like to meet the Rose Parade once, but you’d want to have a beer with the Doo-Dah Parade. Its 35-year history is told in a museum exhibit.