RITS

Riders In The Sky are probably the preeminent yodeling cowboy group of the modern era. The group has been together since 1977, done more than 4,000 live shows, performed music in Pixar's Toy Story 2 and the short For the Birds, appeared in the film Sweet Dreams, and even had their own Saturday morning television program on CBS. But I'll bet you didn't know that the three original members of the group (Douglas "Ranger Doug" Green, Fred "Too Slim" LaBour, and "Paul "Woody Paul" Chrisman) all have postgraduate degrees: Ranger Doug in literature, Too Slim in wildlife management, and Woody Paul in plasma physics. And you probably wouldn't have heard the "Paul is dead" rumor without Fred LaBour's October 14, 1969 article in the Michigan Daily.

When I moved to Los Angeles two years ago, I knew next to no one. For a while it seemed my circle of friends would be limited to a small handful of coworkers and friends of friends. It was hard to meet new people. I met with a few acquaintances for monthly dinners, small house parties, and outings, and before long we had a healthy group of friends and newcomers, all of whom began asking, "When is your next event?"

Being probably the most gregarious person I have ever met, my ex-roommate's girlfriend founded the Los Angeles People Connection as a way to ease her transition from Las Vegas to LA. Impressively, it's still going strong. Their current project is Guerilla Theater, a night of six plays written, cast, rehearsed and performed within the span of 24 hours.