We've been thinking about Curve Magazine the past few days. Why were we thinking of the nation's best-selling lesbian magazine for lesbians who buy magazines in this nation, you ask?

Well, we were chilling at a friend's house the other day and he put on The L-Word. We've never really been big on Showtime's lesbian sudster. Not because we don't like lesbians. We love lesbians, actually. Especially lesbians with tig ol' bitties, but that's not the point.

The point is that we found the L-Word surprisingly engaging, particularly because of out out-actress Heather Matarazzo's appearance as a freelance from Curve. Good old Weiner Dog's cameo subsequently ensured Curve's place in the nightmarish cavern we call our collective mind, which thus led us to their website...

There's some fairly interesting shit happening over there, but nothing as intriguing as Catherine Plato's interview with Nigerian-born lesbian chanteuse, Androgyny. Nigeria's been a hot topic around these parts - a newsworthy location for both the proposed banishment of all things gay and Peter Akinola's machinations - so we were on that shit like flies on...shit?

Anyway, here's what Androg had to say about coming out in the notoriously discriminatory nation:

I knew I was different at age 8, and by 13, I absolutely knew that I was a lesbian and I came out to my family and friends right there in Africa at that time. They actually laughed about it and said it was just a phase I would get over really soon. Well, we never spoke about it again until I was 19, and my family inquired about my "problem phase," and if I had "fixed it," at which time I expressed the fact that it actually wasn’t a phase and I knew for sure I was a lesbian, and would remain that way for life.

All hell broke lose. I became an outcast, treated like I had a disease and constantly persecuted. It even made the national newspapers and local tabloids...
...
But in early 1999, my mom and dad came [to the US] to make their peace. I accepted, and I do love them dearly. I forgive them and I hope the relationship can grow and last.

We also took a look at Androgyny's website - naturally it welcomes you with one of her tunes. It's certainly not what we expected. Introducing the interview, Plato says Androgyny uses her "velvet vocals" to "[blend] gospel, jazz and soulful pop into a sound so smooth we’d fall for her even if she were a straight chick". Hmm, maybe lesbians hear differently, because we heard something completely different. And when we say different, we mean disappointingly familiar and recalls long-repressed memories of circuit parties. Not that that's bad...it's just definitely not "soulful", but we'll hold judgment until we hear her album, which drops this spring.

(As for the marketing geniuses at The L-Word and Curve - you're crossover promotion was a complete success. Tell your respective bosses you deserve a raise. And then share that raise with us.)