John Lurie is having a hell of a time

Friend of Stupefaction, artist & former Lounge Lizard, John Lurie, is having a hell of a time...as mentioned this morning by EV Grieve, Jeremiah, and Alex, the New Yorker has a piece on Lurie's whereabouts & struggles over the last couple of years. The link to the New Yorker story leads you to an "abstract" on their website which, loosely translated, means a crappy & poorly edited short version of what they really printed. To see the full story, you need a subscription.

What it boils down to is besides John's illness (which he's been struggling with for several years and has never really been confirmed as one thing, but is mostly described as lime disease), he's been stalked recently by a former friend. I've spoken to him via phone several times over the last year or so, and I've rarely heard a person sound so consistently down & frustrated. I, and I'm sure others, have offered to help but there's nothing one can do really. And then there's the fact that, frankly, it can be hard to believe the story. Stalking is extremely difficult at best, and deadly at worst. Any law & law agency seem to only be able to help once some sort of harm has actually happened to the victim. When it happens to a male, it's even stranger and harder to believe. It's enough to make a person crazy. Anyway, the one thing Lurie has asked is that people talk about it which finally seems to be happening thanks to the New Yorker.

If you want to help John, probably the best thing you can do is:
- buy some of his art
- buy some of his music
- buy one of his books