“Dark Shadows” fans, cast, and crew are celebrating its 50th birthday next week in Hollywood. We mark the anniversary by bringing in one of the original stars, and one of the original fans. ... When LAPD officer Jorge Parra isn’t walking the beat in LA, he’s still thinking about the city’s streets and buildings. He’s spent years building a 72-square-foot model of LA, out of Legos, in his kitchen. ... We’ll tell you what researchers discovered about the best way to increase voter turnout: voters need to make a simple plan, tell someone about it, and then think what their neighbors will say if they don’t go to the polls.

John talks with 35-year old Chris Thile, who takes over as the new host of A Prairie Home Companion this weekend and hopes to bring in a younger audience, without scaring off older listeners. ... Anthony Hernandez: taking pictures for almost 50 years: Downtown LA in the ‘70s, Rodeo Drive in the ‘80s, the homeless in the ‘90s. ... For KPCC's Voter Game Plan, Meghan McCarty tells us how she’s helping voters understand the complex Measure R transportation tax. ... Meet an Armenian-Syrian college student from Damascus juggling a full time job, night school, and the torture of knowing what his family is going through back home.

Peter Mac's Judy Garland tribute show ... Lisa See's "Shanghair Girls" and "Dreams of Joy" ... Acting v Bullying ... Good Magazine ... Forget Carmen San Diego; who the hell is Moomat Ahiko? ...

Off-Ramp welcomes Lunar New Year in Chinatown ... 3 Places with Linda Vallejo, PST artist ... Spirited Away with My Neighbor Totoro - a Ghibli celebration ... Bradley Whitford on "Art" and that show he did ... have your New Year's resolutions gone out the window?

Clayton and Ellen Kershaw, the real (nice) deal ... Korean American filmmaker Andrew Ahn uses Sundance film to come out to folks ... Ted Soqui's Occupy LA photos ... Downey woman tells harrowing Costa Concordia story ...

Troy Isaac, homeless advocate ... OCMA's PST entry: SoCal's conceptual art hotbed ... EatLA and the death of restaurants ... Coachella expands to two weekends ...

Largest Vivian Maier photography show in LA ... Chris Butler uses film ... speech analysis computer can (usually) tell if you're drunk ...

Walking Out of History, John Rabe's NPR documentary about Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition

New and old takes on Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol"

Judge James Reese fights for literacy ... all-star Night Before Christmas, an Off-Ramp holiday tradition ... A Christmas Story: Dylan Brody and Dylan Thomas ... EatLA eats a lot of sandwiches ...