Cat Power (42 page)

So here's the thing, writing a book is really hard. Surprisingly, this didn't occur to me until I was way into the process. I imagined I'd spend much of my time wearing expensive lipstick and elegantly disheveled clothing while typing on a sleek Mac in a downtown café. Instead I found myself up at four in the morning in not entirely clean Old Navy pajamas, pacing and scribbling on purple note cards. The entirety of this book might have remained scrawled in deranged-person speak were it not for the help of the following people:

My parents, Anne and Russell Goodman, deserve infinite thanks for their enduring patience and grace during this process. Not only did they offer the important perspective of smart people outside of the indie-hipster realm, but they also provided sanctuary at home when I needed to just focus and write in front of the fire while someone else cooked dinner.

Marc Spitz's input as a writer who's been here before was absolutely invaluable. In addition to reading multiple drafts, he performed really ghetto tasks like transcribing stray interview tapes and fetching me bottles of red wine, bags of cheap chocolate, and 90s Tom Cruise whenever I needed to fortify myself. He also forced me to leave the house and act
like a human being when things got really bad. Most of all though, he believed in my ability to pull this off. Thank you Marc.

Maureen Callahan read my early drafts, listened to me ramble on about every great and disastrous interview, and served as a crucial voice of measured reason during my innumerable crises. She is my hero. And not just because no one knows how old she is.

Jacob Goodman was always there to calm me down or get me psyched with incomprehensible Russian phrases memorized from
The Hunt for Red October
. Thanks J.

Ruth Goodman: You have been a part of this book in so many ways. Thank you for sticking by me nana.

Niki Kanodia: Thank you for standing serenely by while I disappeared time and time again to work on this project. You are an enduring friend.

I've been working on this book for the entire time Kate Cafaro has known me, and yet she still likes me. The girl is clearly both a saint and a lunatic, but I couldn't have done it without her. Literally. She printed out the final version on the morning it was due.

Thanks to my two basset hounds, Joni Mitchell and Jerry Orbach, for never, ever, not even once respecting my writing process and, in fact, actively trying to keep this book from happening by stepping on the computer or spilling things or eating magazines I needed or demanding to be fed/played with/taken out just when I was coming to some kind of important point.

Thanks to Jillian Peña and Ariel Ashe—I never wanted sisters because girls are evil, but if I had to have a couple you two would be at the top of my list.

John Gray always treats me like I'm better than I am, which makes me strive to prove him right. Thank you.

Many thanks to Sharon, Elani, and Valerie Rager for always making
me keep my heels down. Somehow all those lessons in and out of the ring are part of this book.

Heaps of thanks in the form of good green-chili stew to my agent Jim Fitzgerald. Thanks to Anne Garrett as well.

Thank you to everyone at Random House who worked on this book. In particular, Carrie Thornton, Brandi Bowles, Erin LaCour, Lindsey Moore, and most especially Brett Valley, whose response to having this project dropped on his desk was to buy me a dirty martini. That's just classy.

Thanks to fellow writers and friends who helped me in innumerable ways: Jenny Eliscu, Jaan Uhelszki, Mark Binelli, Rob Sheffield, David Modigliani, Charles Aaron, Sia Michel, Imran Ahmed, Nathan Deuel, Irina Aleksander, Nick Damski, Tyler Gray, Sophie Schulte-Hillen, Melissa Maerz, James Barber, Tracy Pepper, David Swanson, and Antony Ellis.

Thanks so much to everyone at
Blender
, especially Joe Levy, Rob Tannenbaum, and Nora Haynes.

Thanks to the people at Taos Creek Cabins, Sugar Magnolia Bed and Breakfast in Atlanta, and Bikram's Yoga Downtown in Albuquerque— all places where I worked out parts of this book.

Thanks to President Bartlet and his cabinet for making me feel like it would all be okay.

Thanks to Carlo Vogel and Dave Townsend for your help behind the scenes.

Thank you to everyone who agreed to speak to me—on and off the record.

And finally, thank you Adderall.

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Copyright © 2009 by Elizabeth Goodman

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an
imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Goodman, Elizabeth, 1980-
Cat Power / Elizabeth Goodman.—1st ed.
  p. cm.
1. Cat Power, 1972-   2. Rock musicians—United States—
Biography. I. Title.
ML420.C35G66 2009
782.42166092—dc22
[B]       2008039002

eISBN: 978-0-307-44956-6

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