Curve articles from December 2005

Curve archives from December 2005

She's a survivor.(Melissa Etheridge)(Editorial)
December 1, 2005... CURVE has followed Melissa Etheridge for years, and she has graced our cover more times than anyone else, starting in 1993, when she was the very first celebrity to grant us an interview. Since that first cover story, Etheridge has always been...

Readers (and Rosie) respond to Katrina.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I wanted to update you on Rosie [O'Donnell]'s plan to assist in the relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Baton Rouge is my hometown, so this project is especially meaningful to us as a family. If you would like to contribute...

Truth in advertising?(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I love the new issue--and your magazine as a whole. I buy it almost every month--as long as the newsstand isn't already sold out! I do want to let you know that I was misled by your music issue cover this month (Vol. 15, #6). I think it is...

Bralalalala responds.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I appreciate CURVE for opening up some dialogue on the transgender world ("Transgressive Talk," Vol. 15, #6). As CURVE has noted... some of us [transgendered people] are self-identified as lesbian. I spend a lot of time with lesbians who...

Travel misadventure.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... My partner and I enjoyed reading the article about Coyote Moon Health Resort and Spa (Vol. 15, #6). We had been wanting to visit Tucson for some time and had always considered Coyote Moon for lodging, having seen their ads in CURVE. After...

Love on Curve Personals.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... We are two of your online members, one in London, the other in Florida. It was your online lesbian dating service that brought us together: CURVE Personals in the United States and Lesbian Online personals in the United Kingdom. You can...

Seeing stars.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... While [Lauren] Palmigiano's article ("Tattooing Your Pride," Vol. 15, #5) was short and cute, she neglected to mention one of the most symbolic tattoos of our community. Back in the day, when being gay was life-endangering, many butch women...

Gwen's lesbian cred.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I am at best perplexed by "Why Gwen Is a Lesbian Icon" (Vol. 15, #5) because its content seems to contradict its purpose. As a rule, magazine articles allow readers to access information that is otherwise unavailable, or so they are led to...

Breast cancer awareness.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I am writing to you on behalf of Lucie Blue Tremblay... [who] has begun the Breast Exam Project (www.thebreastexamproject.org), in which she is trying to make women more aware of the need of breast self-exams. (Her sister, recently going...

Christian lesbians make music, too.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2005... I have noticed that you cover all the rock and pop lesbian musicians extensively. I know that since Mel Gibson's movie The Passion was released, Christian music has become very popular... and I wondered if you have ever considered doing a...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
December 1, 2005... Oops! Our feature on the "Top 10 Lesbian Power Couples" in the November 2005 issue (Vol. 15, #7) went to press with the wrong byline; Kathy Belge was the author of the story, not Jodi Helmer. In the same issue, we misspelled photographer Jim...

Girls we love.(letters)
December 1, 2005... WOW! WE ASKED READERS TO write in and tell us which three women they'd like to see on a future cover of CURVE in order to win a free tank top. We had no idea we'd get hundreds of letters with suggestions as specific as "my wife" and as general...

Head of the class.(Out in Front)(Sol Kelley-Jones and her life being gay rights activist)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... When she was 10 years old, Sol Kelley-Jones took her first steps into a life of activism. That was the year that Kelley-Jones, the daughter of two lesbians, testified before Wisconsin state legislators about her experiences being raised in a...

How do you spell R-E-L-I-E-F?(disaster relief)
December 1, 2005... NATURAL DISASTERS DON'T DISCRIMINATE, and LGBT people across the country have proven that relief efforts don't, either. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents, including thousands of...

TV gets The L Word and The D Word.
December 1, 2005... IF PARODY IS THE SINCEREST form of flattery, then Dasha Snyder, creator of the festival-bound TV show The D Word, has paid serious homage to (ahem) that West Coast bevy of glamorous TV gals that has set tongues wagging for two seasons. For...

Wrap it up with Brini.(Brini Maxwell Show )(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... IF YOU'RE NOT ALREADY AN OBSESSED FAN OF THE Brini Maxwell Show on the Style Network, there's even more reason to check out the retro-obsessed domestic goddess who started her wildly popular show as a public access program in the late '90s. The...

Scene.(curvatures)
December 1, 2005... 1 Montreal's famous lesbian Le Boudoir 2 Yolanda Griffith of the Sacramento Monarchs earns Finals MVP honors after whooping the Connecticut Sun 3 Sarah Shahi and Laurel Holloman at Lyon-Martin's Party for a Cause benefit in San Francisco 4 At...

Open studio.
December 1, 2005... Elisa Shea began taking photographs in 1998 with the simple intention of capturing her life, her friends and her surroundings--but with a stunning, larger-than-life aesthetic. Shooting with only 35 mm film, the San Francisco-based photographer...

Gay? Fine by me.(highschool program promoting tolerance)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... ILLINOIS HIGH SCHOOLERS organizing a campaign against homophobia recently came face to face with exactly what they were trying to prevent. Students in T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Gay? Fine by me" found themselves outnumbered by...

Red state Hooters.(curvatures)
December 1, 2005... 95% of restaurant chain Hooters' political contributions were given to Republicans in 2004* Pizza Hut, Chili's and Outback Steakhouse each gave over 85% * Source: Playboy magazine

Close and Cammermeyer celebrate.(curvatures)(National Center for Lesbian Rights )(Glenn Close honored with the Spirit Award)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR Lesbian Rights recently celebrated its 28th anniversary with a sold-out gala that pulled in 2,400 lesbians and their supporters, and honored Glenn Close with the Spirit Award for her portayal of Col. Margarethe...

"V" is for Victory.(Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... CHALK ONE UP FOR THE TEAM: The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund used campaign reform laws to their advantage to propel out lesbian candidate Elena Guajardo to a seat on the San Antonio City Council last summer, making Guajardo the first openly gay...

Spreading the love.(Lady Jaided, Spread magazines)
December 1, 2005... TWO NEW MAGAZINES FROM WOMEN have tongues wagging and eyebrows rising. From Tina Engler, aka Jaid Black, founder of erotic romance publishing house Ellora's Cave, comes Lady Jaided, a "politically conscious magazine to legitimize women's...

You've got to know when to leave her.(lipstick & dipstick)
December 1, 2005... Dear Lipstick and Dipstick: I come from a Mormon family, and it's been a long road since I came out. When I was ready to finally introduce my girlfriend to my family, she shaved her hair off the day before. Is it wrong of me to get...

Why won't she do it?(ask fairy butch)
December 1, 2005... Dear Fairy Butch: My girlfriend and I have a great relationship, except for one thing--completely divergent sex drives. Once a week is just fine for her, which is about four times a week too few for me. I'd really like to try opening up our...

5 great date Ideas.
December 1, 2005... IT'S RIGHT UP THERE WITH BIKINI waxes--the first date. We all know the pitfalls--don't discuss your past mates, don't eat, don't talk too much or too little. This turns the standard first date of dinner and a movie into a land mine waiting to...

One step forward, two steps back.(Mariel Hemingway, Piper Perabo, Eden Riegel )
December 1, 2005... THE LATEST HOLLYWOOD BUZZ confirms what we already knew: Almost every time Tinseltown steps up and gives us a great lesbian character, they're forced to backtrack soon afterward to avoid looking "too gay." I guess even Ellen's miraculous...

She said, she said.
December 1, 2005... "The idea that the knight rescues the damsel is so deep inside me. But now I think it's exceedingly misleading. I have some great male friends, I love male company, I love masculinity. Unfortunately, I'm terribly heterosexual. Sometimes I...

Provincetown pleasures: gay Mecca isn't just for queers anymore. Dammit.(Cape Cod, Massachusetts )
December 1, 2005... Tucked away on the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts is a tight-knit population of 3,500--a town inhabited by a diverse mix of Portuguese immigrants, eclectic artisans and friendly locals enjoying the prime seaside real estate. Quaint...

05 Lesbian Theater Awards.(05 THEATER SPECIAL)
December 1, 2005... Lesbian theater may not get the glory of cinema, but it certainly deserves the accolades. This year Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver revived their lesbian noir comic pulp drama Dress Suits to Hire (at New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club);...

Pop Culture Princess: lesbian performance artist Elizabeth Whitney merges feminist camp with country music.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... Over the past decade, Elizabeth Whitney has worked dozens of jobs ranging from delivering singing telegrams in Florida and giving ballroom dance lessons in South Carolina to crooning jazz tunes in France and teaching yoga in Utah. "Those...

Borders and boundaries: New York's first lady of slam poetry, superstar Staceyann Chin, takes on the world with her new show.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... Onstage, performance artist Staceyann Chin is larger than life, her passion infectious. This isn't surprising, considering the half-Chinese, half-black, Jamaican-born poet possesses too many accolades to list. But offstage, the Brooklyn...

Defying Hollywood: lesbian writer Jane Anderson may be a big-shot Hollywood director now, but theater is still in her blood.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... "I think that a lot of my work hinges on the concept of forgiveness," Jane Anderson says contemplatively. It's the day of the San Francisco premiere of her latest film, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, and the petite writer-director is a...

Ugly Ducklings unite: a national campaign against lesbian teen suicide becomes a play and a movie.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... Hats off to Maine playwright Carolyn Gage (www.carolyngage.com) for spearheading an effort to bring awareness to the issue of suicide among young lesbians through her play Ugly Ducklings. Gage is the author of five books and 48 plays, and the...

Super Freak: Lynn Breedlove's genderqueer standup.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... I'm cracking up in the inky black of San Francisco's Dark Room, a gritty Mission District record store-turned-community theater that hosts events like Bad Movie Night ($5 includes free popcorn and live hosts); shows by Impossible Productions,...

76 best holiday gifts.(Buyers guide)
December 1, 2005... It's that time of year again, and you know what that means: long lines, crowded malls and trips to stores you really don't want your friends to see you at. We're here to change all that with a groovy guide to inexpensive gifts you can order...

Sex and the pagan symbol: one lesbian discovers that Christmas trees bring pleasure to the holidays, in more ways than one.
December 1, 2005... The deep green noble that stands in our dining room, dripping sap on the 1907 floor, was worth every penny of the $45 we paid to cut it down with a rusty saw and watch while a hearty 20-year-old hauled it across a muddy field to our minivan....

I'm a survivor: Melissa Etheridge battled cancer and came out the other side a whole new woman. And she's never been sexier.(Interview)(Cover story)
December 1, 2005... By now there isn't a lesbian alive--well, maybe there's one in some remote corner of Kuala Lumpur--who doesn't know who Melissa Etheridge is. She's the rock star who stole Bruce Springsteen's crown, the lesbian who parented two babies conceived...

Batting for our team: Out of Practice star Paula Marshall gets another good lesbian role.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... Actress Paula Marshall has had six different TV shows that were all cancelled the first year (including Gina Gershon's Snoops; the critically acclaimed Cupid; and Cursed, in which she played a lesbian), but that hasn't stopped her from becoming...

Shooting star; Rock Star: INXS' Jordis Unga.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... When 22-year-old Jordis Unga hit the stage on Rock Star: INXS--CBS's reality show aimed at finding a new lead singer for the Aussie power pop rock band that topped the charts in the '80s--queer girls around the country saw something in her that...

Dishing it out: Hell's Kitchen's Jessica Cabo.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... "When I first went in there, because of my hair, he thought: 'punk ass,'" contestant Jessica Cabo says of master chef Gordon Ramsay, who judged Fox's grueling cooking reality show, Hell's Kitchen. "It took him a minute to realize that I'm...

Breaking rules: Toccara from America's Next Top Model.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... When the bold and sassy Toccarra auditioned for America's Next Top Model, she changed the face of American beauty. Standing 5-foot-9 and weighing in at 180 pounds of pure hotness, Toccara is anything but your typical model. A recent castmate on...

Missy's misdemeanor: you've never heard of her, but trust us, she's the next big thing in music.(Missy Higgins)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... It's not every 16-year-old who has the self-confidence, grounding and foresight to postpone instant fame and fortune to go backpacking across Europe, but Australian pop phenom Missy Higgins is just such a rarity. After winning a national radio...

Family flicks.(sapphic screen)(Making Grace)(Show Me)(Unveiled)(Both)(Movie review)
December 1, 2005... WITH DECEMBER AND THE MANY HOLIDAYS upon us, dykes the world over are gathering with their families, both chosen and of origin. With love and thoughts of connection on the mind, now is the time to grab that popcorn, cuddle up and catch some...

Emotional rescue.(music watch)(Have You Heard)(More Shine)(My Machine)(Insignificance)(Where You Live)(This Island Remixes)(Souls Alike)(reBOOT: Notes for the Next Generation)(Mama Kanagaroos: Philly Women Sing Captain Beefheart)(Danceculture)(On the Verge)(King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan)(Arular)(Sound recording review)
December 1, 2005... MY LIFE HAS BEEN A BIT UNUSUAL lately--and that's an understatement. I began writing this column while driving home to New Orleans from working on the long crew at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, but Hurricane Katrina forced me to take a...

Real live girls.(dyke drama)
December 1, 2005... HOW DO YOU KNOW IF A lesbian likes you? She looks the other way. A dyke from Down Under told me that. I recently acted as tour guide and lesbian ambassador to a trio of Australian dykes--Deb, Nora and Kerry--who were visiting San...

Finding peace.(Column)
December 1, 2005... THE HOLIDAYS ARE A TIME FOR reflection and nostalgia. Yet in the midst of all the shopping and planning, parties and festivities, we often forget that the holidays are about the spiritual part of ourselves. They are about our hearts and souls,...

Name that tune.(tech girl)(Ultimate Ears' Superfi 5 Pro earphones)(NeatReceipts Professional )(Cool Tunes Cooler )(Talking Road Whiz)(Product/service evaluation)
December 1, 2005... TAPPING MY FOOT ON THE BAR STOOL to the off-kilter rock beat, I tried to distinguish the artist who was caterwauling through the speakers in the dingy midtown bar. "It's Karen O, definitely Karen O," I yelled to my cohort who, at that moment,...

Top ten: reasons we love Tania Katan.
December 1, 2005... TANIA KATAN GOT STRUCK BY THE worst kind of lightning--twice. At 21, and then again 10 years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both times, she fought the battle with moxie to spare. She recently documented her experiences in her book...