David Safran

Los Angeles Magazine — The 2004 disappearance of a New Jersey teenager sent to a notorious San Bernardino County group home for depression treatment—and his alleged reappearance in San Diego—made national headlines. But was it all a web of lies?

Los Angeles Magazine — John Inman, Blake Pursley, and Daniel Yuen disappeared from a CEDU facility decades ago. Now, questions swirl about the relationship San Bernardino police had with the shuttered group home

Newcity — Like most important stories, this one begins with a cassette deck, an amateur archivist and hundreds of screaming teenagers. Since 2013, Dave Hofer, the former product buyer at Reckless Records, has become a sought-after digital archivist specializing in out-of-print punk rock. What began as a project focusing on DuPage County, Hofer’s old home, has fanned out across the Chicago area. Hofer has personally digitized and posted 383 releases, and his YouTube channel has over 250 videos of fantastically rare footage. This spiky repository has turned Hofer into a punk rock Alan Lomax.

Evanston Magazine — In a silly attempt to find ghosts in my apartment, I was aided by local librarians, archivists, and spiritual healers. I didn’t spot a single Colonnade ghost. I did, however, notice impressive qualities shared among people in the neighborhood: adventurousness and acuity; sweetness and generosity. You might be off your head, but you also might be clairvoyant.

Newcity — For a local bill, talent buying and barrel-scraping are often comparable. Three or four bands are assembled—or overstuffed—into a line-up. The show takes place on nights deemed graveyard slots for live music. Genres are half-considered, but it’s more about putting barely-heard-of bands together and suffering through the sets.

The Awl — It’s Thursday afternoon in late August. I am recording a dismal power-metal jingle for CBS Sports and the NFL. Football: a sport that should have died 65 million years ago. To record this jingle, I am using my iPhone’s GarageBand app. This isn’t composing; this is clicking. I am assembling a loop of sludgy, charmless instrumental samples. “Dark and Heavy Riff 06.” “Indie Rock Riffing 02.” “Double Punk Drumset 01.” I am 30 years old, and a songwriter. A singer-songwriter. Multi-hyphenate. But since my music is virtually unknown outside a narrow circle of Chicagoans and South American women, and since there’s about five thousand dollars left in the entire music industry, I’m also a composer for advertising.

Jewrotica — Promoting the unputdownable “Secret Life of Houdini” (Leonard Cohen to Ratso: “Please don’t talk bad about Houdini – he loved his mother”), Ratso appeared on The Leon Charney Report. After Charney mentioned the mega success of Private Parts, the gruff host and billionaire real estate tycoon questioned Ratso’s clothes – sunglasses, dark blue t-shirt, a boxy windowpane patterned sport jacket – and tycooningly asked, “So how come you don’t dress better?” A half-pleased laugh and then a quick reply: “Because I’m Ratso.”