Post by Kathy on Jun 10, 2007 19:35:50 GMT -5
Paul interviewed briefly in an article about Laurie Lindeen:
www.startribune.com/457/story/1234721.html
Ex-Minneapolis punk rocker writes memoir
Minneapolis rocker-turned-author Laurie Lindeen combines her two loves in "Petal Pusher," a coming-of-rage story.
By Jon Bream, Star Tribune
Last update: June 10, 2007 – 4:41 PM
Pssst: Kids, don't tell your parents, but the lunch lady at school used to be a punk rocker. That's right. Johnny's mom -- the blonde who volunteers at his south Minneapolis grade school -- once led an all-female band that flirted with fame.
Now Laurie Lindeen is an author. "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story" tells the true-life tale of a girl from the wrong side of town in Madison, Wis., who sought the romantic escape of the rock life in a trio called Zuzu's Petals.
Even though multiple sclerosis had been diagnosed in the four-time University of Wisconsin dropout, she moved to Minneapolis about 20 years ago with her two girlfriends-cum-bandmates, made two albums and traveled the world to every hole-in-the-wall club that would have them. Along the way, the "Daydream Believer"-loving gal fell in love with her punk-rock prince, Paul Westerberg.
"Petal Pusher," published last week, is a hardscrabble, heart-tugging and often hilarious coming-of-age memoir that's really more coming of rage. In addition to MS, she lived through her parents' divorce and her own promiscuity, abortion, drinking, drug use and -- yikes -- seeing her younger sisters get married before she did.
The book is less about music than Lindeen and her do-it-yourself feminism, which is why she's disappointed that most bookstores are stocking it under "music" and not "autobiography" or "women's books."It's shelved in between John Lennon and Marilyn Manson," the 45-year-old groaned over coffee after serving lunch at her 9-year-old son's school. "It's driving me crazy. I go in one store a day and go: 'No woman is going to come back here.' And this book is a girl. She needs to be on a shelf where she's not going to get beaten up or ignored."
Even in her moment of triumph, Lindeen remains the underdog, the outsider with a chip on her shoulder despite her suburban address, rock-god husband (her words), a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and a big-time publisher's stamp of approval. A dozen years removed from dingy clubs, she still wears vintage clothing -- flower-print blouses, faded Aerosmith T-shirts, plaid pedal pushers -- and the eternal footwear of punk rock: Converse tennis shoes.
Lindeen's debut received a rave in Publishers Weekly and a nice write-up in Madison's Capital Times, which means she'll probably get a good crowd when she returns to her hometown June 22 to read from the book. She also has a reading June 24 at St. Paul's Turf Club -- the kind of grungy place that Zuzu's Petals played -- and a "Fakebook" program on the other side of the tracks Saturday at the Fitzgerald Theater. There, she will be joined by Zuzu's Petals (reuniting for two songs), Westerberg and other musicians mentioned in "Petal Pusher."
This isn't Lindeen's first book. After the breakup of her band in 1994, she wrote an unpublished novel and made a solo EP. In 2001, she enrolled in the U's creative writing program, specializing in memoir writing. ("A master's degree made me feel smart and cool after being in a rock band," she says.) Her 2004 thesis was about 150 pages, which she expanded into "Petal Pusher."
Her agent sold the book to Atria, a division of Simon & Schuster, whose editors asked her to develop three key characters -- her parents and her boyfriend.
• • •
He's intensely private. I have no secrets.
-- From "Petal Pusher"
Passages like this one about "Paul" -- no one in the book has a first and last name except Carly Simon -- are the kind of vivid, gushing diary entries that a romantic young woman truly in touch with her feelings might write.
We're like the rock 'n' roll Nick and Nora Charles, only we're probably the only two people I know who actually watch the "Thin Man" movies and I'll never be as cute or thin as Myrna Loy.
Yes, Westerberg has read the myriad paragraphs about him.
"I didn't dwell on them," he said in a phone interview. "I've gotten real good about not reading things written about me -- even if it's something as intimate as this."
He and his wife did not set any ground rules when she began writing this memoir.
"I didn't ask," he said. "I didn't know what she was writing. We really didn't talk about it. I just gave her free rein to write what she wanted. She's certainly done the same with me; I've never edited my stuff for her.
"I think I threatened to sue about a year ago. That was a joke; I think I scared her for an afternoon.
"I encouraged her to lie. And, to her benefit, she wouldn't do it."
Not that he's complaining. "There's nothing in it I'm ashamed of," he said. "She could have painted a darker, uglier picture of me."
In fact, he is proud and full of praise for "Petal Pusher," although he believes "she can do better. ... There's something in her that's even more powerful than what she's already written. I think she's a couple of books away from writing her masterpiece."
• • •
The book's jacket contains endorsements from heavyweights including film director Cameron Crowe, Jane magazine editor Jane Pratt and author Patricia Hampl, one of Lindeen's advisers at the U.
"The book is a lot about attitude, but she had none of that as a student," Hampl said in an interview. "She was a very diligent student, very ardent, very humble, eager to learn."
One of Lindeen's biggest challenges was revealing deeply personal details. Then again, her life had been an open book during a decade of singing her alt-pop songs onstage.
"Writing a book, you're exposing yourself from the safety of your own space, which is much different from putting yourself on display every night," she said. "I have a lot of courage in a room by myself. Quite frankly, writing books is a preferable business to me to grow old gracefully in."
Lindeen also is trying to teach others how to share their deepest thoughts in prose. Last fall, she spent five weeks working with 500 ninth-graders at Eastview High School in Apple Valley.
"She gave mini-lessons on how to bleed on the paper, to get in touch with what's real and sincere," said Eastview English teacher Ann Strey.
Lindeen imparted some life lessons, too. "She talked to the kids about pursuing dreams and taking those risks and stepping out of that which is conventional," Strey said. "Our school is a very high-socioeconomic, perfect-family, nice suburban school. She was able to tap into those kids who don't fit that mold. That was very inspiring for the kids."
• • •
Lindeen has started her second book, a sequel tentatively titled "Rock and Roll Housewife," about the first few years of her marriage before her son's birth. She plans to include passages from her unpublished novel, "My Boyfriend's Dead," about a seventh-grade girl whose boyfriend falls to his death when he sneaks off for a smoke during a field trip.
After receiving some rather personal e-mails at her website, she is a little skittish about how much to reveal of her life with Westerberg. She knows how obsessive his fans can be. "If I get it too much, I'll fictionalize the next book," she said.
Another issue she'll have to address is what Johnny reads about Mom and Dad.
"I did write this book knowing at some point Johnny would read this," she admitted. "I don't think there's anything in there that I would be uncomfortable discussing with him when he's older, more mature."
Just so the other kids at school don't find out first. Not yet, anyway.
www.startribune.com/457/story/1234721.html
Ex-Minneapolis punk rocker writes memoir
Minneapolis rocker-turned-author Laurie Lindeen combines her two loves in "Petal Pusher," a coming-of-rage story.
By Jon Bream, Star Tribune
Last update: June 10, 2007 – 4:41 PM
Pssst: Kids, don't tell your parents, but the lunch lady at school used to be a punk rocker. That's right. Johnny's mom -- the blonde who volunteers at his south Minneapolis grade school -- once led an all-female band that flirted with fame.
Now Laurie Lindeen is an author. "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story" tells the true-life tale of a girl from the wrong side of town in Madison, Wis., who sought the romantic escape of the rock life in a trio called Zuzu's Petals.
Even though multiple sclerosis had been diagnosed in the four-time University of Wisconsin dropout, she moved to Minneapolis about 20 years ago with her two girlfriends-cum-bandmates, made two albums and traveled the world to every hole-in-the-wall club that would have them. Along the way, the "Daydream Believer"-loving gal fell in love with her punk-rock prince, Paul Westerberg.
"Petal Pusher," published last week, is a hardscrabble, heart-tugging and often hilarious coming-of-age memoir that's really more coming of rage. In addition to MS, she lived through her parents' divorce and her own promiscuity, abortion, drinking, drug use and -- yikes -- seeing her younger sisters get married before she did.
The book is less about music than Lindeen and her do-it-yourself feminism, which is why she's disappointed that most bookstores are stocking it under "music" and not "autobiography" or "women's books."It's shelved in between John Lennon and Marilyn Manson," the 45-year-old groaned over coffee after serving lunch at her 9-year-old son's school. "It's driving me crazy. I go in one store a day and go: 'No woman is going to come back here.' And this book is a girl. She needs to be on a shelf where she's not going to get beaten up or ignored."
Even in her moment of triumph, Lindeen remains the underdog, the outsider with a chip on her shoulder despite her suburban address, rock-god husband (her words), a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Minnesota and a big-time publisher's stamp of approval. A dozen years removed from dingy clubs, she still wears vintage clothing -- flower-print blouses, faded Aerosmith T-shirts, plaid pedal pushers -- and the eternal footwear of punk rock: Converse tennis shoes.
Lindeen's debut received a rave in Publishers Weekly and a nice write-up in Madison's Capital Times, which means she'll probably get a good crowd when she returns to her hometown June 22 to read from the book. She also has a reading June 24 at St. Paul's Turf Club -- the kind of grungy place that Zuzu's Petals played -- and a "Fakebook" program on the other side of the tracks Saturday at the Fitzgerald Theater. There, she will be joined by Zuzu's Petals (reuniting for two songs), Westerberg and other musicians mentioned in "Petal Pusher."
This isn't Lindeen's first book. After the breakup of her band in 1994, she wrote an unpublished novel and made a solo EP. In 2001, she enrolled in the U's creative writing program, specializing in memoir writing. ("A master's degree made me feel smart and cool after being in a rock band," she says.) Her 2004 thesis was about 150 pages, which she expanded into "Petal Pusher."
Her agent sold the book to Atria, a division of Simon & Schuster, whose editors asked her to develop three key characters -- her parents and her boyfriend.
• • •
He's intensely private. I have no secrets.
-- From "Petal Pusher"
Passages like this one about "Paul" -- no one in the book has a first and last name except Carly Simon -- are the kind of vivid, gushing diary entries that a romantic young woman truly in touch with her feelings might write.
We're like the rock 'n' roll Nick and Nora Charles, only we're probably the only two people I know who actually watch the "Thin Man" movies and I'll never be as cute or thin as Myrna Loy.
Yes, Westerberg has read the myriad paragraphs about him.
"I didn't dwell on them," he said in a phone interview. "I've gotten real good about not reading things written about me -- even if it's something as intimate as this."
He and his wife did not set any ground rules when she began writing this memoir.
"I didn't ask," he said. "I didn't know what she was writing. We really didn't talk about it. I just gave her free rein to write what she wanted. She's certainly done the same with me; I've never edited my stuff for her.
"I think I threatened to sue about a year ago. That was a joke; I think I scared her for an afternoon.
"I encouraged her to lie. And, to her benefit, she wouldn't do it."
Not that he's complaining. "There's nothing in it I'm ashamed of," he said. "She could have painted a darker, uglier picture of me."
In fact, he is proud and full of praise for "Petal Pusher," although he believes "she can do better. ... There's something in her that's even more powerful than what she's already written. I think she's a couple of books away from writing her masterpiece."
• • •
The book's jacket contains endorsements from heavyweights including film director Cameron Crowe, Jane magazine editor Jane Pratt and author Patricia Hampl, one of Lindeen's advisers at the U.
"The book is a lot about attitude, but she had none of that as a student," Hampl said in an interview. "She was a very diligent student, very ardent, very humble, eager to learn."
One of Lindeen's biggest challenges was revealing deeply personal details. Then again, her life had been an open book during a decade of singing her alt-pop songs onstage.
"Writing a book, you're exposing yourself from the safety of your own space, which is much different from putting yourself on display every night," she said. "I have a lot of courage in a room by myself. Quite frankly, writing books is a preferable business to me to grow old gracefully in."
Lindeen also is trying to teach others how to share their deepest thoughts in prose. Last fall, she spent five weeks working with 500 ninth-graders at Eastview High School in Apple Valley.
"She gave mini-lessons on how to bleed on the paper, to get in touch with what's real and sincere," said Eastview English teacher Ann Strey.
Lindeen imparted some life lessons, too. "She talked to the kids about pursuing dreams and taking those risks and stepping out of that which is conventional," Strey said. "Our school is a very high-socioeconomic, perfect-family, nice suburban school. She was able to tap into those kids who don't fit that mold. That was very inspiring for the kids."
• • •
Lindeen has started her second book, a sequel tentatively titled "Rock and Roll Housewife," about the first few years of her marriage before her son's birth. She plans to include passages from her unpublished novel, "My Boyfriend's Dead," about a seventh-grade girl whose boyfriend falls to his death when he sneaks off for a smoke during a field trip.
After receiving some rather personal e-mails at her website, she is a little skittish about how much to reveal of her life with Westerberg. She knows how obsessive his fans can be. "If I get it too much, I'll fictionalize the next book," she said.
Another issue she'll have to address is what Johnny reads about Mom and Dad.
"I did write this book knowing at some point Johnny would read this," she admitted. "I don't think there's anything in there that I would be uncomfortable discussing with him when he's older, more mature."
Just so the other kids at school don't find out first. Not yet, anyway.
