 | | Rock Star
Melissa Etheridge, the superstar who got her first Grammy only after coming out, has launched her new album – and she’s invited Curve along for the ride.
By Gretchen Lee
It’s Monday morning, the eve of her first album release in four years, and Melissa Etheridge is backstage at The Rosie Show in New York’s Rockefeller Center, waiting for an 8 a.m. rehearsal. Still on West Coast time, she’s already been through makeup by the time Rosie O’Donnell comes up the elevator in her sweatpants.
Good friends for several years, Etheridge has invited O’Donnell to sit in with her on one song during today’s taping of the popular afternoon talk show. O’Donnell’s drum kit is rolled out in the middle of the set. A second kit, for band member Kenny Aronoff, is placed at the edge of the sound stage. Although she’ll play solo tonight at the Hard Rock Café concert simulcast worldwide via the Internet, Etheridge is performing this morning with the same guys who’ll travel with her on the upcoming Breakdown tour.
High Visibility
The Tonight Show’s Vicki Randle Steps Up to the Mike
By Gina Bowers
Photographs by Jennifer Roper
She’s on a spiritual high, she’s laying down a political rant, she’s got her groove on and she’s bringing it to millions of viewers every night. Vicki Randle is the first and only woman in The Tonight Show band, appearing five nights a week, 48 weeks a year for the last seven years and still going strong.
Randle, known as a world-class percussionist, began singing and performing at the tender age of 3. she grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attending her high school dances as a member of the band. When the notion of women’s music took off in the 1970s, she was right there in the mix.
I Go To Rio
Rio de Janeiro is blessed with natural wonders including steep mountains, lagoons, spectacular beaches and even a rainforest all within city limits.
By Frances Stevens
Want to know what I did first upon arriving in Ipanema? I flipped off the front desk clerk at the hotel.
No, I didn’t mean it. And yes, I knew better. All the guide books had warned me that the hand sign Americans use to say “OK” would mean something else entirely in Rio.
My face flushed beet red as I apologized and proceeded up to my 18th-floor room at the Caesar Park Hotel. After slipping the magnetic key into the lock and opening the door, I was sure my trip was taking a turn for the better.
One Fine Day: Curve’s Holiday Gift Guide
What to give the girl who has everything? Fast forward through the winter doldrums to a sunny day in the park – where love blooms, who could ask for anything more?
Photographs by Debra St. John
Styling by Jenevieve Cameron
Hair and Makeup by Jay Boot
Sexual Healing
With her groundbreaking book, The Survivor’s Guide to Sex, somatics practitioner and sex educator Staci Haines asserts that empowered sex after abuse is not only possible, but vital. Haines recently talked with Curve about desire, shame and working through the problems that can result from abuse.
By Pam Huwig
Curve: Why is it so hard for women to talk about sex?
SH: Women are fed a lot of misinformation about who we are sexually. So many people think of women as either virgins or whores. There just are very few images of sexually empowered women who choose what and who they desire.
Curve: Why is good sex important?
SH: Ah, my favorite question. Sex is a normal human drive. Having good sex – where you fell pleasure, intensity, and longing – is one of the most powerful experiences anyone can have. Not having that can be as detrimental as sex can be powerful. Oftentimes, people who have been abused avoid sex so it doesn’t bring up feelings about the abuse. To heal, they have to go toward, and eventually through, whatever triggers memories of the abuse – that’s where freedom is.
According To
Here I Am Now
By Linda Perry
“I realized quickly when I knew I should, that the world was made up of this Brotherhood of man, for whatever that means.” These lyrics ring a bell? No? Ok, I’ll give you the hook, “Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey, I said Hey, What’s going on?” Ding! Ding! Ding!!! You got it! “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes. Writing and singing the song that skyrocketed us from poverty level to MTV fame, daily radio play, and ultimately $6 million in sales may have brought me international celebrity and all the luxuries a 26-year-old girl could ever desire, but ironically, none of it ever brought me a feeling of success. As defined in terms of happiness, I had never actually achieved success.
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