Curve articles from March 2007

Curve archives from March 2007

Everybody loves Papi.(Frankly Speaking)(Janina Gavankar )
March 1, 2007... I first met Janina Gavankar in Chicago at CURVE's Gay Games VII closing dance party last year. At the time, The L Word's season four was being filmed in Vancouver but her character, Papi, wasn't yet on the tips of lesbian tongues everywhere....

Kiss us, Kate!(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... We've always wanted to be one of those magazines with slavishly devoted fans who carry us around the globe and take photos holding the magazine in front of Wisconsin's biggest cheese wheel or while in attendance at Montana's Rocky Mountain...

Model citizen.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I absolutely loved seeing Megan Morris on the cover of the December issue (Vol. 16, #10) of CURVE. Not only is she beautiful, she's smart and well spoken, which made the interview with her a fantastic read. She had a lot of interesting stories...

Crazy for the Kings Men.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... It was awesome to see All the Kings Men recognized in your December issue (Vol. 16, #10)! Every ATKM show is an awesome experience. I don't even have words to describe it. All I know is that more people across the U.S. need to know about them...

Loving Lisa, but is she loving you?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... Woo! I read my interview ("Top Ten Reasons We Love Lisa Meyers," Vol. 16, #10). I'm so excited. Thanks! I just bought the last four copies from the Borders down the road. I had been told that I'd see something in the mail first, but I checked...

Is it all Jenny's fault?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I just got the new issue (Vol. 17, #1) and am flabbergasted! I admit, I only skimmed, but a lot of people do that and take to heart what you say. Albeit, any intelligent person has a mind of their own and isn't going to take to heart everything...

Marc has two mommies.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I'm a security contractor here in Iraq, and I just so happen to have two mommies! I receive your wonderful magazine along with some other lesbian publications, and some of the guys in our team room have been checking them out. Keep in mind we...

More from Kelli Herd?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2007... I have a quick question about something that's going around the Web concerning Kelli Herd and her film, It's in the Water. Word has it that Herd is working on a sequel to that wonderful film and that Keri Jo [Chapman], Teresa [Garrett] and...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2007... In January's Sapphic Screen (Vol. 17, #1), we incorrectly said Puccini for Beginners was on DVD. The film hit theaters in February. The article about Jadine Louie and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band in the December issue (Vol. 16,...

Girls on film.(OutinFront)(Dee Mosbacher's work)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... When some people share their life stories with Dee Mosbacher, the accounts are kept confidential forever. For other people, she turns their tales into feature-length movies. Such is the paradox of being a San Francisco-based psychiatrist who's...

A family affair.(OutinFront)(Judith Stacey's work)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Leave it to the spin doctors. For the past 15 years, Dr. Judith Stacey has studied lesbian and gay families. She is perhaps most recognized for publishing a landmark article with Tim Biblarz in 2001 titled "(How) Does the Sexual...

The girls of God's House.(OutinFront)(Susan Lowe and Helene Loper's work)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... When asked at age 11 what she wanted to be when she grew up, Susan Lowe (above right) knew she wanted to be a priest. What she could not have possibly foreseen was that she would end up sharing her pulpit with another woman minister, Helene...

Atlanta's Femme Mafioso.(Curvatures)(Atlanta Femme Mafia)
March 1, 2007... Not long ago, when Aly Stealey and some fellow femmes donned sparkly makeup, short skirts and fierce heels to Atlanta's lesbian hot spot My Sisters' Room, they faced a wall of blank stares. "The bartenders wouldn't serve us," she recalls....

90210's secret sapphic.(Curvatures)(Josie Davis)(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... As fans gathered at the Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place: The Complete First Seasons DVD launch party at the Beverly Hills Hotel this winter to celebrate, we couldn't help looking for some red carpet action. We found it with actor Josie...

Holy smackdown.(Curvatures)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... According to the Illinois Prairie Flame, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Ks., is getting the holy smackdown from the United Church of Christ for holding up approval on the nomination of Janet T. Neff as a federal judge. Brownback (pictured abve)...

Get a good night's sleep dykes can do that, Ya know.(Curvatures)(buyers guide )(Buyers guide)
March 1, 2007... Spring has sprung and so will our clocks soon, but losing an hour to pesky daylight savings time doesn't have to hurt, not with technology on your side. Before you hit the bed, brusha brusha with the Dental Air Force ($240, dentalairforce.com),...

No room of our own in Georgia.(Curvatures)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... One of the few lesbian bars in the South, My Sisters' Room in Atlanta (birthplace of the Atlanta Femme Mafia, previous page) has closed its doors. The last business on the block to go, My Sisters' Room finally had no choice but to vacate it...

Cheryl Finfrock: painter.(OpenStudio)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Influenced by artists like Edward Munch, Rainer Fetting and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Texas-based painter Cheryl Finfrock weaves surreally vivid colors and playful, abstract figures into her dreamscape images, as shown above. In addition to the...

South Africa says "I do" to lesbians.(Curvatures)(same-sex marriage allowed)
March 1, 2007... South Africa became the fifth major country in the world to allow same-sex couples to wed, with its Dec. 1 Parliament vote. The decision offers equal rights to same-sex couples, who can now opt for a civil union or a marriage; the choice is up...

You're a Homogenius!(Curvatures)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Thought Monopoly was too straight? Wondering where to get that Trivial Pursuit Lavender Edition? Look no more, old-school game fans: Homogenius is the trivia game that confirms our suspicions that pretty much everyone in Hollywood is gay. A...

Going to the chapel: it's wedding bells for Ellen and Portia, meanwhile Rosie may get a new show.(Lesbofile)
March 1, 2007... Congratulations to Ellen and Portia on the good news! Maybe Lindsay or Keira will catch the bouquet? Wedding Bells Bust out the champagne and start throwing rice--Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are getting married! The National...

The other L-word: the Lingerie Bowl.(Curvatures)
March 1, 2007... A stripped-down version of the Super Bowl, the Lingerie Bowl stars some gorgeous women playing a real-deal game of tackle football in their, well, underwear. As of press time, the game is set to air on Pay-Per-View Feb. 4, urging football fans...

She said, she said.(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... "With all due respect to Susan [Sontag], we never liked words like 'companion' or 'partner.'... Call us 'lovers.' I like 'lovers.' You know, 'lovers' sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan. I don't have a...

Gays give back.(Curvatures)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Rainbow World Fund has partnered with America's Second Harvest, the country's largest charitable hunger-relief organization, to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Thus far, RWF has donated $390,000. "They approached us after Hurricane Katrina hit...

A career up in smoke?(Curvatures)
March 1, 2007... After 17 years as a Minneapolis firefighter, Bonnie Bleskachek knows all about battling the heat. Brushing aside taunts and abuse from fellow firefighters because of her gender and sexuality, Bleskachek continued her work undaunted,...

Two girls and a dog.(Curvatures)(Dotti Berry, Roby Sapp)
March 1, 2007... When faced with a touch of homophobia from the neighbors, Dotti Berry responded the only way she knew how, with love. Having heard some disconcerting comments only one week after she married her partner, Roby Sapp, Berry bought dozens of...

Wally's world takes baby steps.(Curvatures)
March 1, 2007... Notorious Wal-Mart made the controversial news pages again--not for bad business practices this time, but actually for a meritorious act. Wal-Mart, in a small attempt to rectify its bad rap for mistreatment of employees, donated $60,000 to Out...

Come on Barbie let's go party.(Curvatures)
March 1, 2007... Toy behemoth Mattel continues to menace artists whose work depicts the impossibly busty blonde doll. This time, it's turning the screws on Brazilian artist Karin Schwarz, whose photograph series Amazing Girls envisions Barbie dolls in lesbian...

Scene.
March 1, 2007... 1 Joy O'Donnell, CURVE's outgoing art director Kas Neteler, associate publisher Sara Jane Keskula, Cori Duncan and writer Amy Andre at CURVE's December issue holiday party in San Francisco 2 America's Next Top Model contestant Megan Morris...

Some like it hard.(Ask Fairy Butch)
March 1, 2007... Dear Fairy Butch: I hope you can help me. I have had only one relationship with a woman. I loved her very much, and I am sure I always will. Since I had no other lesbian friends, I took all of her words to heart--like when she told me that if I...

Femme or Foe: honing your gaydar.(Lipstick & Dipstick)
March 1, 2007... Dear Lipstick and Dipstick: Help me! I'm having a problem telling a femme girl from a straight girl. How do you tell them apart when they look almost alike?--Confused in Texas Dipstick: Confused, I was once in your shoes. That's why I...

Stars in her eyes.(Astro Grrl)
March 1, 2007... Pisces (Feb. 20-March 20) Sex: Guppies are full of romantic thoughts. Whisper the words of love, and she will follow you anywhere. Be sure to pack breath mints. Career: March is the month to make your grand corporate move! Anything is...

Ten Powerful Lesbians in film & TV: want to know who has power in this country? Lesbians. Hence the reason for CURVE's new series, Ten Powerful Lesbians, which takes you inside numerous industries to find out who these power babes are.
March 1, 2007... NINA JACOBSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF WALT DISNEY MOTION PICTURES GROUP, ENDURING STUDIO-EXEC EXTRAORDINAIRE Although she was laid off from Disney in July rather indecorously--when she called from the hospital room where her partner was about...

Bad Girls are back: Britain's biggest lesbian export hits U.S. shores--well, televisions--this year.
March 1, 2007... British actor Mandana Jones is an international lesbian icon who portrayed one of the most beloved lesbian characters in television history. So why is it so few people in America--gay or straight--know about her, the character she played, or...

One-on-one with Mandana Jones.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... The sultry actor gives us a little face time to talk about her Bad Girls role and what her father thinks about all of this What made the chemistry between you and your co-star, Simone Lahbib, work so well? We just made choices together...

Oh, Canada! Too bad the exchange rate isn't what it used to be, but if you are looking to have some world-class spa treatments, then look no further than our neighbors up north.(Country overview)
March 1, 2007... When I set out to book my Alberta vacation, I'll sheepishly admit that the first thing I had to do was get out a map. Sure, I knew it was in Canada, and I sort of recalled that k.d. lang was from there, but other than that I was clueless....

Playing both sides of the wall: Berlin's two former halves mean twice the gay fun.(City overview)
March 1, 2007... Berlin has experienced a small renaissance. The past hundred years of Berlin's tumultuous history include the freewheeling 1920s Weimar Republic, the horrors of World War II and the rise and fall of the infamous Berlin Wall. But what most...

Coming out to Venice: a lover of all things Venice introduces her wife to the city that holds her heart.
March 1, 2007... We've been traveling nonstop for a day and a half, it's 10 at night and raining, and we're exhausted. Despite this, I still have to greet Venice the right way, ambling through the night's empty streets, peering down watery alleyways, to the...

A different take on the Caribbean: Escape to Curacao--before everyone else does.(Geographic overview)
March 1, 2007... During my last sunset in Curacao, I sat on my balcony overlooking the turquoise Caribbean Sea and listened to the raucous calls of tropical birds give way to the evening chirping of tree frogs. The warm air, cooled to a perfect 80 degrees by...

A lesbian on Capitol Hill: you don't need to be elected enjoy D.C.(City overview)
March 1, 2007... Every summer, the church lady forced me to go on those God-awful cross-country driving trips. You know, the ones where everyone pretends to be the Partridge family, but they're really more like the Osbournes? Well, during the summer of our...

Drinking down under, Kiwi-style: oddly enough, extreme boozing in New Zealand brings back fond childhood memories.(Country overview)
March 1, 2007... I assumed when heading to the southern hemisphere, my obvious first stop would be Australia. But as luck and fate would have it, my first trip Down Under brought me to New Zealand, to cover the Cocktail World Cup. New Zealand's signature vodka...

Queer broads abroad: since 1973, globetrotting gals have looked to Lonely Planet to choose their next adventure.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Lonely Planet travel guides arrived in the early 1970s amid a world bedazzled with hip huggers, fat mustaches and impossibly enormous collars. Founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler returned from an epic journey starting in London and continuing...

Easter Island offers mystery at the end of the earth: this overlooked destination may just surprise you.(Geographic overview)
March 1, 2007... "Here I am, our in the Pacific, thousands of miles from anywhere. My souvenir may or may not be a tattoo. I trekked to the island's best artist today, and he wasn't in. It is a hit or miss process here--no appointments." Thus read the postcards...

At home in the Midwest: just ask a local why it's time to visit Minneapolis.(City overview)
March 1, 2007... Your hometown is your hometown, but there's no city like an adopted one. I moved to Minneapolis almost 12 years ago, thinking I would stay a year and then move somewhere new. But there never seemed to be a better place to live. After almost 12...

Plenty of pain and gain: guys aren't the only ones who can take it to the mat. Women's independent pro wrestling is tougher than you think.
March 1, 2007... "Pro wrestling is tougher than it looks," says Randy Powell, the founder of the Professional Girl Wrestling Association. "Not so much that the girls are out there trying to hurt each other. But it can be very competitive." The PGWA is not...

Who's your daddy? Actor Janina Gavankar, The L Word's Papi, has set tongues wagging, hearts fluttering and loins melting as the one of the sexiest players on television. We caught a few moments with the shooting star before fame goes to her head.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Janina Gavankar is walking toward you, all lanky swagger and smoldering eyes, when it hits you, hard--this is what they mean by "built like a brick shithouse." Gavankar, a dark-haired, Indian-Dutch Chicago native, exudes a captivating,...

Staring down the demons.
March 1, 2007... Mental illness haunts my family. My mother was severely mentally ill. She rarely left her bedroom, let alone our house. Photographs of my mother from my childhood portray a beautiful, wraith-like woman with an utterly vacant look. For most of...

What's cooking? Lesbian chefs are all the rage these days. Just ask TV viewers.
March 1, 2007... Food is a hot commodity these days. Television shows like Fox's Hell's Kitchen and Bravo's Top Chef brought the cutthroat world of the restaurant business into living rooms in a way that Julia Child never could. But while the real world of...

Who makes the rules? And why are they so much fun to break?(movies)(Movie review)
March 1, 2007... Three new films tackle ladies falling in love outside conventions, whether with much younger co-workers, sisters-in-law or simply more than one gal at once. Notes on a Scandal (Fox Searchlight) When "artfully disheveled" Sheba Hart...

Annabelle Gurwitch: actor and producer.(Q+A)(interview)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Being fired and viciously insulted by the iconic Woody Allen was perhaps the best career move actor Annabelle Gurwitch could have made. After the requisite vodka and ice cream binge, Gurwitch's harsh dismissal inspired Fired, a documentary that...

Joan Opyr: author.(Q+A)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Humor columnist and northern Idaho editor of New West Magazine, Joan Opyr is still basking in the acclaim for her first mystery novel, Idaho Code: Where Family Therapy Comes With a Shovel and an Alibi. This cheery tale of murder set in...

New sounds for spring: shake your thang to Brazilian beats or chill out to acid jazz.(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2007... As we start to thaw out from the winter cold and our thoughts turn to the sun-filled adventures that await us in summer, new albums by Incognito, The Bird and the Bee, and Badi Assad can help set the scene and get you in the mood, with their...

Kimberly Dahme: bassist, singer, songwriter.(Q+A)(Interview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... As an established country singer-songwriter, mother of two, and bassist for the '70s rock anthem band Boston, buxom blonde Kimberly Dahme is lovin' life. I read that you didn't know how to play bass when Boston first asked you to join...

Ready to Play Jane Bond? Less stalking, more spying.(Tech Girl)(Buyers guide)
March 1, 2007... OK, OK, sometimes it's not cool to spy on your girlfriend. Or your ex-girlfriends or even your exes' exes as the case may be in the lesbian world. After all, you're no longer a moony 14-year-old singing "All Out of Love" while you drive around...

Taking the road less traveled: to experience a new culture means digging below the surface--even when it's painful.(Politics)
March 1, 2007... Recently, one of my students who is contemplating graduate school asked my advice. I told her to forget grad school for now and travel instead. Traveling, I told her, would expand her world as a writer far more than any graduate seminar. It...

Your cheatin' heart: sometimes it happens to the best of us, but why?(Dyke Drama)(Essay)
March 1, 2007... Why are you cheating? I am not here to judge you, I am just trying to understand. Please, before you start, I really must insist that you be original. Being cheated on is bad enough without being humiliated by a complete lack of...

Top ten: reasons we love Heather Gold.(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Heather Gold's business card could easily be its own Top Ten. She's a comedian, talk show host, lawyer, baker, blogger and workplace reformer, among other things. Gold left a Silicon Valley career to pursue her passion for performance. In her...