Queena Kim meets Ricky Jay ... Martin Eisenstadt talks back ... Mateo Stoneman's secret: "I learned to be a mariachi in prison!" ... Dinner Party Download makes you smarter, AND more intelligent ... Andy Rooney STILL hates Christmas ... Early peek at Downey and Law in "Sherlock Holmes."
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• 9:32
Mateo Stoneman made his Anglo media debut in March of 2008 on Off-Ramp. The white mariachi, who I said has "the voice of an angel," was the biggest hit we ever had. Hundreds of listeners bought his CD because of the broadcast, some of them a dozen at a time. For an LA Times profile, the reporter did something I never thought to do -- a criminal background check -- which revealed ...
Off-Ramp host John Rabe (left, with pipe) got an early look at the new Warner Brothers film, "Sherlock Holmes," and finds it reasonably Canonical.
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• 5:30
In "I Am Martin Eisenstadt," fictional conservative commentator from the Harding Institute, finally tells his side of the story. Off-Ramp host John Rabe speaks with his creators, filmmakers Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish.
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• 2:02
Andy Rooney tried, but he just doesn't like Christmas.
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• 4:24
Sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay is staging a new show at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood called "Ricky Jay: A Rogues Gallery." Here’s the set-up. On stage, Jay will display vintage posters and playbills of old-time vaudeville and side-show acts. The posters and playbills are from Jay's collection and span hundreds of years. Audience members choose a poster and that triggers Jay to perform a sleight-of-hand trick or tell a story about the poster. Jay told Off-Ramp producer Queena Kim that it could be his most personal show yet.
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• 2:47
Do you have an "NPR" name, a given name with a certain savoire faire that raises you above the John Smiths of the world? Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with a blogger and her boyfriend who have perfected a way of changing chopped liver into Corey Flintoff.
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• 10:34
Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano make you smarter, faster, handsomer with Dinner Party Download, called "the Vergnügungszug of radio shows" by Stern magazine.
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• 5:35
With the economy - or the mis-management of it - emerging as the biggest story of our time, Off-Ramp contributor Andrea Domanick tries to figure out why nobody is teaching kids about personal finance. Andrea meets up with Chuck Currier, a high school finance teacher, at the mall to find out what kids know, and don't know, about personal finance. Then she confronts her mother. While Andrea learned the value of earning what you spend, she asks her mom, why didn't you teach me how to spend it responsibly?
Off-Ramp host John Rabe has a blog that's been called a "must read," and not just by him. Check it out, and please comment.