In the current New Yorker, Tad Friend writes “about the strange disappearance of the downtown artist John Lurie, known in the ’80s for his band the Lounge Lizards, in the ’90s for his show Fishing with John, and more recently for his absurdist paintings.

“‘I remember he was very handsome,’ recalls Sylvia Plachy, who photographed Lurie in 1984, during his Lounge Lizard days, at his apartment on the Lower East Side. ‘He looked like James Dean and Marlon Brando, and a little like Adrien Brody!”

“Twenty-six years later photographer Gillian Laub spent a scorching summer day with Lurie at an undisclosed location. ‘When I arrived, he was concerned I’d been followed,’ Laub told me. Before she made any pictures, Lurie ate dumplings and spoke about his past. ‘He said he was just pretty when he was younger, and that maybe his priorities were screwed up,’ wrote Laub.