Curve articles from December 2004

Curve archives from December 2004

Pink or blue?(frankly speaking)(gay parents)
December 1, 2004... As we come to the close of another year, my thoughts turn to holiday gifts, reconnecting with family and friends and, of course, vacation. But I also like to use this time to reflect on the changes in our community and what's coming next. This...

You want Karina? We got Karina.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... I just want to express my pleasure at seeing Karina Lombard on the cover of CURVE (Vol. 14, #6). Can you say "hot"?! It is about time that someone gave Lombard the coverage she deserved, since she was so blatantly ignored. Just know that this...

The butch mystique.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... In an interview in the October issue of CURVE (Vol. 14, #6), Guinevere Turner responds to criticism facing The L Word (because you can't please all of the lesbians all of the time) by saying: "It's that same Catch-22, saying all lesbians aren't...

Girls lie too?(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... Thank you for printing Meri McCann's letter about Terri Clark (Letters, Vol. 14, #6). I think it speaks volumes that the artist, her label and/or her management continue to bend over backward to distance Clark from such a large percentage of...

Diana speaks.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... I just read the piece you wrote about me ("Most Likely Groove Girls," Vol. 14, #5), and I'm blown away! I'm totally amazed that you truly felt who I am without ever meeting me. I love you! --Diana De Mar, Los Angeles

Aww, we love you, too.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... I am a new reader of your magazine, and I love it! It has a lot of great articles and other related subjects that I can't find in any other magazine of its kind.... I hope that in the future there will be a magazine devoted to teens and young...

Nothing like name recognition.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... We just wanted to let you guys know that you totally dropped the ball in "Hollywood Wedding Belles" (Vol. 14, #6). Alice Dodd's social-worker character on Judging Amy is much less well-known than Jillian Armenante's character, Donna Kozlowski...

Christa Kreimendahl.(Out in Front)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... With works that tackle heady issues like lesbian rape, suicide, custody disputes and conjoined twins, 24-year-old playwright Christa Kreimendahl has suddenly become the darling of the Southeast lesbian theater scene. But the working-class...

Dykes and dolls.(curvatures)(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 1, 2004... MOVE OVER, BARBIE: BOBBIE HAS arrived, and she is a dyke hottie--the world's first lesbian action dolls are now on sale. The 12-inch-tall Bobbie wears a boy-beater T-shirt, a leather biker jacket and a bitchin' tattoo. She sells for $49.95, and...

Kosher Comedy on Christmas.(curvatures)
December 1, 2004... IF YOU'RE ONE OF THE SCORES OF DYKES WHO JUST doesn't do Christmas, we've got just the thing for you: a lesbian-run Jewish comedy night hosted by a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve. It's time for the 12th Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy...

Udderly fantastic news.(curvatures)(cattle lesbianism)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... LOOKS LIKE STEAK AFICIONADOS aren't the only ones turning a lusty eye on grade-A meat. Examinations of domesticated cattle show that herded cows exhibit more lesbian behavior than wild cattle that are able to roam freely. According to Clive...

Battle of the blondes.(curvatures)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... A bevy of blonde babes have written (with a little help from ghostwriters, of course) memoirs and thinly veiled novels about life in the limelight. We're as curious as the next gal about Paris Hilton's new release, so we tuned in to check these...

Top ten: reasons we love Odalys Nanin.(curvatures)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... HALF OF LOS ANGELES HAS a crush on Cuban lesbian playwright Odalys Nanin, founder of Macha Theatre, the country's only Latina lesbian theater company, and the star of the wildly popular Garbo's Cuban Lover. Why the universal praise? Of course,...

Cheesy party alert.(curvatures)(Showgirls )(Video Recording Review)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Showgirls (www.showgirlsmovie.com), the infamous 1995 Paul Verhoeven suckfest, is back in action (and in a bigger box!). The DVD reissue comes with pasties, a shot glass and striptease lessons. MGM is throwing Showgirls parties all over the...

Lesbian TV guide.(curvatures)
December 1, 2004... LADIES, SET YOUR TIVO! THE NEW December lineup on Here! TV, the 24-7 satellite TV station, is a sure contender for your attention, offering three lesbian titles this season: Desert Hearts (the 1985 drama with Helen Shaver as an unsatisfied wife...

What a rush: a lesbian sorority.(curvatures)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... FORGET ABOUT THE CARDIGAN brooches and boy-obsessed parties of your mother's sorority. Those days are long over. At last, we have a lesbian frat and a lesbian sorority. Founded by Lakisha Goss, Michelle McCallum, Stefany Richards and Jai...

Affirmative inaction.(curvatures)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... 46%: Number of U.S. businesses owned by women 3%: Amount of government contract dollars that go to private businesses owned by women Source: Health magazine

Lesbian Olympics redux.(curvatures)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT LAST summer's Olympics, and trust me: If you didn't watch this year, you missed some shining queer moments. No one will forget Misty May and Kerri Walsh smacking each other on the bum after every beach volleyball win,...

Moments of truth.(ask fairy butch)
December 1, 2004... Dear Fairy Butch: I have been learning how to be happy without a girlfriend. I enjoy being on my own and making my own decisions; I'm becoming a "righteous babe." Recently there has come a woman who likes me very much. We have been sleeping...

Hollywood don't ask, don't tell.(lesbofile)
December 1, 2004... NOW THAT THE YEAR IS ALMOST over, it's time to take time to reflect on your many blessings--including an abundance of great gossip about your favorite lesbian and lesbian-friendly celebs. Here are tidbits to liven up your holiday dinner...

Quote unquote.(lesbians)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... "Just because I choose to love women and don't dress the part of a model doesn't mean that I'm not very good at what I do." >> Amanda Moore, one of the country's most successful fashion models, to the New York Times "If you're going to...

Family vacation: what to do with the small-fry set this December in San Diego.
December 1, 2004... There's more to San Diego than getting splashed by Shamu. Even if you're traveling with kids. And especially if you and your other half fancied yourselves to be sophisticated ladies before you began racing along together on the mommy track. ...

Holiday gift guide.(Buyers Guide)
December 1, 2004... Whether you're planning a crazy Kwanzaa, a dignified Ramadan, a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a soothing Solstice or any one of the many other holiday season permutations, we've got the gift for you (or your parents, sister's kid, six...

Sapphic stage: our 2004 lesbian theater awards.
December 1, 2004... Never been to the Great White Way but have a hankering for some Sapphic stage action? What's a girl to do? Snag this handy playlist of CURVE's 2004 lesbian theater faves. Whoever said lesbians don't do theater was probably too busy watching...

Stage stars: women to watch in theater this year.
December 1, 2004... After back-to-back Pulitzer Prize wins for Paula Vogel in 1998 and Margaret Edson in 1999, we hope momentum is finally swinging in favor of lesbian theater, shining an overdue spotlight on playwrights who were, until recently, largely left in...

Vanguard in the Jungle.(Theatre Rhinoceros)
December 1, 2004... Its namesake may be among the most endangered species on the planet, but Theatre Rhinoceros, America's oldest and longest-running professional queer theater company, is launching its triumphant 27th year. The theater, named after the symbol of...

Hothead on Broadway?(Hothead Paisan: The Musical, Act One )(Theater Review)
December 1, 2004... It might not be quite ready for 42nd Street, but the debut performance of Hothead Paisan: The Musical, Act One at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival this August was certainly a crowd-pleaser, receiving a rousing ovation from the rapt audience...

The play's the thing.
December 1, 2004... For a very long time, the only lesbian playwrights whose plays were regularly produced before American audiences were African-American Lorraine Hansberry (who is still not widely remembered as lesbian) and Jane Chambers (whose sentimental play...

Sexing the Cherry: she played a conservative congresswoman in The West Wing and is an FBI agent in the upcoming Ocean's Twelve. Now veteran stage actor Cherry Jones is playing a nun--on TV and on the stage--and wait till you find out what's under her habit.(Interview)
December 1, 2004... When theater luminary Cherry Jones returned to the stage in Boston for the title role in Lysistrata, Aristophanes' bawdy 2,500-year-old comedy, she told reporters that it felt good to be doing something other than serious plays for a change....

'Tis the season.(sapphic screen)
December 1, 2004... I HATE TO SOUND LIKE MARY Poppins, but I love the holidays. The candy, the gifts, the snow. Did I mention gifts? I know a black lesbian Jewish family that celebrates Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas. I know it sounds selfish (and...

Other DVD gift sets.(sapphic screen)
December 1, 2004... The Best of So Graham Norton (BBC Video): Scandalous queer interviews, bawdy humor and wit. (www.bbcamerica.com) Will and Grace: Season Three (Lions Gate): Karen saying "Lezzie Borden" may be over-played, but she still crack me up....

Under suspicion.(Q & A: Linda Mizejewski)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... Portions of Silence of the Lambs were filmed in Linda Mizejewski's gray, working-class Pennsylvania home-town. In the film, Jodi Foster sits at Moxley's soda fountain on the same lime-green padded stools where Mizejewski, now chair of Ohio...

From subtext to subversion.(in the stacks)(The Fat Girl's Guide to Life)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... VERY FEW BOOKS LOOK AT THE lives of marginalized women, instead focusing most of their attention on the masses publishers think fit in the mainstream norms. But two new books, The Fat Girl's Guide to Life and The Drag King Anthology tackle...

Other page-turners.(in the stacks)(book reviews)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... IN BOOKSTORES NOW: The Saint of Incipient Insanities, Elif Shafak (Farrar, Straus and Giroux): This Turkish literary wonder brings us a heartbreaking tale of 20-something friends (including bisexual chocolatien Gail) that centers around...

Educated guess.(Q & A: Carol Guess)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... Carol Guess' moving new collection of poems from Calyx Books, Femme's Dictionary, is the best kind of first-person lyric: smart, graceful and tightly crafted, with plenty of punch and passion to keep the reader entranced. Whether she's writing...

Beyond the cliches of folk.(music watch)(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2004... YEAH, I KNOW: GIRLS WITH GUITARS, blah blah blah. It's such a cliche, right? But just when you think you can't possible listen to yet another folk/roots/country/insert-synonym-for-acoustic-here album, discs like the four below surprise you,...

Other licks.(music watch)(Video Recording Review)(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2004... ON CD: Arkansas Traveler, Michelle Shocked (Polygram): The whimsical folkster re-releases one of her best collections. Twenty-one tracks laden with her trademark Appalachian porch-sitting flavor with "Come a Long Way" as the anthem....

Woman down under.(Q & A: Christina Green)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... Christina Green is more than a musician. The intelligent, thought-provoking Australian storyteller is also a political activist and a true-blue, red-blooded dyke who is a proud member of the Melbourne chapter of Dykes on Bikes. She loves Susan...

Heck the halls and phooey Lala.(dyke drama)(lesbianism)
December 1, 2004... "BUT I HAVE STRAIGHT FRIENDS whose mothers-in-law despise them. How did they get so lucky?" My wife and I were getting ready for the first of many holiday events of the year, and she was not happy about it. In fact, she was downright...

Those who can, teach.(according to)(lesbianism)
December 1, 2004... I'M A 21-YEAR-OLD LESBIAN, LIVING in an apartment with my wife less than five miles from where we both grew up, and where our parents still live. My wife and I decided to stay close to our roots, the places where our lives grew and changed. My...

Anything but fruitcake.(out on the web)(Christmas shopping)
December 1, 2004... SO YOU'VE BEEN LATE ON GIFTS once in a while; it happens to everybody. Maybe you've been told your gifts are kind of nondescript, or... what was the exact word? "Meh"? Perhaps you forgot her birthday. Twice. And even though you paid for it...

Chick clicks.(out on the web)
December 1, 2004... GAMES: There's a reason The Sims is the all-time best-selling computer game: It was built by a design team dominated by women. Instead of insipid, violence-driven plotlines, the game allows users to create and control virtual families. The...

The spirit of the holidays.(brownworth)
December 1, 2004... AS THE HOLIDAYS APPROACH AND 2004 draws to a close, I'm contemplating a homily for the season. I love Christmas--I'm a practicing Catholic--and I revel in the spirit of the season that I define not by rampant and rabid consumerism, but through...

Open studio.(Jennifer Loumis)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... For some lesbians, family isn't always what it's cracked up to be, and never is that clearer than during the holidays. Who hasn't wanted to nod off while listening to her grandfather's favorite fishing story for the thousandth time or sought...