This week, a special Off-Ramp. We're fundraising! You know, raising consciousness and money for KPCC, including Off-Ramp. New this week are John's interview with Martin Mull and Kevin's additions to our Hard Times series. But there's lots more in the full show, which you can listen to above.

You know the dilittante artists ... people whose paintings sell only because they established themselves as celebrities in some other field first. (Churchill, Hitler, etc.) If anything, Martin Mull is a painter who is a dilettante actor. He says after earning two art degrees, he only turned to the stage and screen to pay for oil paint. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Martin Mull at the Samuel Freeman Gallery in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station art complex, where he's just opened a new show called Split Infinitives." (It closes December 18.) The pieces - semi-photorealistic monochromatic montages - ooze Cold War unease. WARNING: If you CLICK THROUGH for the full version of the thumbnail, you'll see monochromatic nudity (butts and boobs).

On a wet Tuesday morning this past October, Off-Ramp's Kevin Ferguson went to Pasadena's annual Homeless Connect Day. He heard stories from several homeless people and service providers