Granted, the homeless make it hard to run a business near downtown LA’s Skid Row. But one man’s solution is raising eyebrows: spraying water on the sidewalk overnight. ... One of the local pianists in The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is already famous as the Video Game Pianist on YouTube. ... Richard Simmons has gone from being the most accessible celebrity in LA to gone. A new podcast “Missing Richard Simmons" asks what happened. ... And we visit Beth Goodnight -- self-proclaimed "mad scientist" of set building -- to see the last of her Oscar sets before they’re sent off for this weekend’s show.

Director Ava DuVernay on her new documentary about the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned slavery ... Backstage with La Santa Cecilia, a Grammy-winning L.A. band that tells modern stories with traditional music ... Frank Romero — interviewed by Cheech Marin — finally has his first major museum retrospective ... Another date that "lives in infamy:” when FDR ordered the imprisonment of 120-thousand Japanese-Americans 75 years ago this weekend ... Girl at the White Horse, a brand new cocktail bar at Sunset and Western, owned by the son of the Shah of Iran’s social secretary.

Saturday at noon, a special live, 2-hour broadcast, as we march with Endeavour -- and hundreds of thousands of Angelinos -- from LAX to the California Science Center.

EatLA tastes olive oil, tells obsessive foodies to chill, and discovers why canned beer is better than bottled beer; Dylan Brody remembers the charms of Schuylerville NY; San Antonio Winery turns 95; look out for Frank Stoltze at your local restaurant - he wants to talk politics with you.

A TNG extravaganza for the ground-up restoration, now on Blu-Ray ... My Imported Bride, Part Two ... The man who invented "Gaytino." Brian has Mice.

Hunter Davis and his preternatural Ian McKellen impression; Masami Teraoka on almost 50 years of boundary-stretching art; Happy Birthday Rocky, Natasha, and Witch Hazel (June Foray); Pat Metheny on tenor sax; and probably one or two other things you wouldn't expect on a public radio show.

Smokey Robinson for Poet Laurate! Larry Davis, working on his second album at 74. Carlos Almaraz, influential Chicano artist, remembered at Vincent Price Art Gallery.

Wayne White gets a documentary; Jerry Gorin reports on the history of Pasadena's Doo Dah Parade and meets Roxette; the late Hal David sings his own hits, including "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head;" "The People's Guide to Los Angeles;" Bienvenu! the Super Scooper arrives in LA (from Quebec) in time for wildfire season;

This week on Off-Ramp, we revisit some of our favorite moments from this year: A homeless advocate finds a way to give back to the very community he took from. What do you do after you've been robbed? (Become a superhero.) And John Rabe calls Betty White a grandma.

This week on Off-Ramp, named best public affairs program by the LA Press Club: Will lowering the speed limit on the 110 between downtown and Pasadena automatically make it safer? What happens when 71 artists fill a sketchbook? (They help build 4 libraries.) And one of the greatest music festivals you've never heard of, Wattstax, which happened 40 years ago.