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."

Off-Ramp went to the opening of the Orange County Museum of Art's Biennial to interview many of the up-and-coming artists highlighted. This week, a conversation with curator Sarah Bancroft (audio #1 above) - who made 150 studio visits to find the artists - and artist Taravat Talapasand (audio #2). CLICK THROUGH for our special coverage, including the long versions of interviews with more than a dozen of the Biennial artists, and more art from Talapasand.

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.

Each of LA’s ethnic groups has its cultural hero. Mexican Angelinos have Benito Juarez. Cubans have Jose Marti. The Chinese can point with pride to the Tiananmen Square martyrs. And, as Off-Ramp literary commentator Marc Haefele tells us, LA’s quarter-million Filipinos – in fact the largest Asian group in the city proper – have Dr. Jose Rizal. His sweeping chronicle of Philippine society just before the dawn of independence was so scathingly accurate that not only was it suppressed, but the author died for its truth.

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust recently opened at it's brand new location in Pan Pacific Park, right next to the Grove. Rachel Abrams talked to LAMH board member Marie Kaufman about her own harrowing story, starting in Poland around 1939.

Mark Peel, Off-Ramp contributor and chef-owner of Campanile, Tar Pit, and The Point, gives us a tour of Campanile at 11am, just before it opens for lunch. CLICK THROUGH for Mark's movie about Lobster Mushrooms.

KPCC's Frank Stoltze ponders John's big question: so what? And Frank offers a musical surprise from Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

This week CyberFrequencies goes behind the scenes with Pezzi -- the star of Fox Sports' web show Cubed.