Saturday, thousands of people are expected to help clean up the LA River. The volunteer effort, dubbed La Gran Limpieza is in its third decade. This year, there’ll be 14 cleanup sites with bands at each one, and even Mayor Villaraigosa will be rolling up his sleeves. KPCC’s Brian Watt went down to the river to speak with the cleanup’s organizer, Lewis MacAdams.

Off-Ramp host-pro-tem Brian Watt goes to the Astro 24-hour diner in Silverlake to talk with Chris Nichols of Los Angeles Magazine about Eldon Davis, the architect who designed Norm’s, Pann’s. and other monuments of Googie architecture. Davis died Friday, April 22d, at the age of 94.

LA County continues to struggle with deficit issues. With cuts left and right, one thing they're not getting rid of is the giant pair of ribbon cutting scissors that they hold near and dear. They have special handlers. And they are stored in special places. Kevin Ferguson--Off-Ramp's Producer--spent the day with one of those pairs from the warehouse to the ribbon cutting and back again.

In his life, Frank Zappa released over 60 albums total and recorded dozens more that never saw the light of day. Kevin Ferguson talks with Gail Zappa--Frank’s widow--and Joe Travers--the Zappa family's official archivist--about how you maintain an archive for one of the most prolific musicians of all time. Gail and Joe will be giving a more in depth talk about the Zappa archives in Downtown LA on Thursday, May 12 as part of the Association for Record Sound Collections' 45th annual conference.

Novelist Denise Hamilton remembers Terry McGarry, an old school LA Times reporter -- "a link to the swashbuckling school of early journalism" -- who welcomed her to the trade of writing. (Hamilton's piece originally appeared in LA Observed's Native Intelligence blog. CLICK THROUGH for a link.)

KPCC Reporter (and host of this week's Off-Ramp) Brian Watt moderated this week's congressional debate to replace outgoing US Rep Jane Harman. Not an easy task, considering there were 15 candidates. CLICK THROUGH for a list of all 15!

Chris Balme is the co-founder of SPARK, an organization that creates one-on-one apprenticeships for middle school students from disadvantaged communities. Students get direct experience with firefighters, architects, costume designers, and veterinarians, the types of jobs students dream about attaining. At the end of the 9-week apprenticeships, students take part in a Discovery Night: a show-and-tell open house for the kids and their mentors. That's where Brian Watt met 13-year old Luz Moreno last year, a student at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. She apprenticed with 20th Century Fox in the marketing department, and wound up making a trailer for her fantasy movie, "Zombie Killer of Camino Nuevo." CLICK THROUGH to see Luz Moreno's trailer