Less than a year ago, a wildfire devastated the Oakridge mobile home park, a small, tightly knit, and by all accounts idyllic community in Sylmar. Queena Kim and Frank Stoltze produced this documentary, in three parts, The Ashes of Oakridge.

The interviews were sad, funny, and informative... KPCC's reporters -- like Frank Stoltze, shown near our Mt. Wilson transmitter a couple years ago -- were out in the field covering the Station fire, talking with residents and fire officials.

Off-Ramp producer Queena Kim sits down with KPCC's Molly Peterson and Frank Stoltze, who spent much of their week covering the Station, to get the unexpected inside story on covering wildfires.

Queena Kim and Tanya Jo Miller join CyberFreaks Kevin Ferguson and Jackson Musker to try out Bing, Microsoft's new browser. Microsoft calls Bing a "decision engine" to distinguish itself from Google's "search engine." What's the difference? Listen to find out! Also check out CyberFreak Jackson Musker on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday (LINK ON YOUR LEFT), talking about Twittering poetry. Scott Simon did not show any fear when he interviewed the rising public radio star.

Dear Conan, thanks for mentioning us in your monologue Tuesday night, but couldn't you have said "89.3-KPCC?" Please? Just once? Dear Listeners: Come inside if you think you can do better than Conan's joke ...

Do you dread social gatherings where you might be called upon to engage in witty repartee (talk good)? Then, friends, Dinner Party Download is the FREE PROGRAM for you. In a matter of minutes, hosts Brendan Newnam and Rico Gagliano, trained intelligence enhancers, will make you at least 14%* smarter. This time on Dinner Party Download: Gary Hustwit, Krakatoa and Foraging...

KPCC's Brian Watt shelled out $20 for this t-shirt ... come inside to see the back.

When wildfires hit Southern California, all the airborne traffic reporters, like KNX's Jeff Baugh, switch from reporting Sig Alerts to giving their unique perspective, from thousands of feet in the air. KPCC's John Rabe talks with Baugh about covering the Station Fire.

Culture Clash, the performance trio, adapts Aristophanes' "Peace" for a month of performances at The Getty Villa (Sep 10 - Oct 3). Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with two of the troupe: Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas.

Off-Ramp Commentator Christopher Ames' hawk's eye view of the fire...

KPCC's John Rabe talks with author and filmmaker Nicholas Meyer about his new memoir, the tasty and eminently readable "The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood." Here's the raw audio from the interview, much of which will appear on a later Off-Ramp. He's signing the book Wednesday (9-2) at Borders Northridge and Thursday (9-3) at Village Books in the Palisades. Come inside for "the shooting script" for the interview...

UPDATED 9/2/2009: Given Disney's acquisition of Marvel this week, we thought you'd like to hear our interview with the man who made Marvel acquireable in the first place. True Believers, since you listen to Off-Ramp, you already knew Stan Lee was already working with Disney. AUDIO 1: the long Comic Con interview. AUDIO 2: a much shorter one. And look inside for info on the new Time Jumper episode. -- John Stan Lee -- the man who made Marvel Comics huge -- has a new project with Disney called Time Jumper. It's a movie/comics hybrid called a "motion comic." Here's a long version of the group interview he gave at San Diego Comic Con on Thursday, July 23d, to John Rabe and ...

NOTE FROM JOHN RABE: The box of masks I bought for a remodelling job came in handy this week because my car doesn't have AC and I can't close the windows.