Papaya King, the well-known New York hot dog stand, has opened in Hollywood. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with LA's first family of hot dogs, Pink's, to see if they're worried about losing -- sorry -- top dog status. CLICK THROUGH for the new address to Papaya King!

Off-Ramp host John Rabe and Eat-LA's Colleen Bates visit Papaya King's Hollywood outpost for a taste test. CLICK THROUGH for a link to Papaya King and John's rant about their annoying ad campaign.

Madame Ganna Walska was a Polish-born socialite, married six times. She was an aspiring opera vocalist who despite years of voice lessons simply couldn't sing-- her story inspired Orsen Welle's to write Citizen Kane's second wife. In 1941 she bought a huge estate in Montecito (just outside of Santa Barbara) and called it Lotusland. It's one of the most impressive botanical gardens in the country. Madame Walska died in 1984 but her estate has thrived with myriad lotus flowers, topiary bushes and cycad plants--those are stout seed plants that kind of look like short palm trees. Cyndi Bemel walked through the gardens with Lotusland curator Virginia Hayes. Click through for a photographic tour of the gorgeous property!

Ever heard of an adapted viola? What about a chromalodeon? Or a harmonic canon? They're all instruments invented by avante-garde composer Harry Partch. Partch was a California native who threw out traditional keys and patterns in favor of strange and complex 43+ note microtonal scales. Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson headed to a rehearsal studio on Mount Washington to talk to John Schneider, a music professor and a member of Partch, a musical tribute to the late composer. Click through to see a video of John Schneider performing Harry Partch's "The Letter" on the harmonic canon!

In another installment of Off-Ramp's Hard Times series--where we look at those in the area left behind by our economic "recovery"--Kevin Ferguson talks to Gregory Crosby, a California native.

Michael Q Schmidt is 57 years old, and weighs about 300 pounds. You wouldn’t guess it by looking at him, but he’s made a career based solely on his looks. As an actor, you might have seen him on Cartoon Network, the Harry Potter films and dozens of music videos. Off-Ramp’s Kevin Ferguson sat down with Schmidt at his home in Placentia.

When you're driving down Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, look for the huge fiberglass rooster sitting on a roof. It's the Al-Salaam Polleria. It's a live-poultry shop that sells halal chickens slaughtered according to Muslim dietary laws. What's a halal chicken shop doing in a mostly Latino neighborhood? Sabiha Khan reports for Off-Ramp.