dragon!

I'm still a nerd...

oh what a wonderful - and horrible - world.

Life throws you for a loop sometimes. Like when you turn around and realize that you've been in love with someone for years without even realizing it. Or when you realize that you are in fact loved, when you never were able to fully accept that truth. Or when you realize that thinking about your childhood just makes you unfathomably sad. Or when your twenty-two year old cousin dies a week before his college graduation... and everything you thought mattered totally doesn't in comparison. (That was two months ago.)

Just something I've been thinking about a lot.

<3

siri's top five style staples, summer 2010

5. Red lipstick
My favorite lipstick has a creamy texture, flattering orangey-red color, stays on like a dream, feels sophisticated, and is neither too matte nor too shiny - it's dewy. I've had this tube of Revlon Moondrops lipstick in earthy for a while now, I inherited it from my mother over year ago because she has problems finding lipstick that doesn't turn pink on her, but I'm not giving it up ever. I hope Revlon still makes them, last time I checked they did.

4. Pointy-toed Flats
for the Audrey in everyone

3. High-waisted short-shorts
for legs that go on for miles

2. Soft breezy tissue-weight t-shirts

for lazy days

1. Dresses
any style, anywhere, pure beauty.

FASHION 2010: A return to femininity and class?

Well from my summer magazine reading, it looks like the fashion world's obsession with distressed, ripped, overly-zippered, pantsless, just-rolled-out-of-bed-hungover, neo-grunge style is fading, replaced with a revival of classic femininity and clean-cut masculinity. THANK GOD. Hemlines are lower (i.e. no longer bordering on nonexistent), skirts are full and flirty, waistlines are nipped in, shoes are taking a step away from the sky-high-platform/bondage combination that has both frightened and disgusted a good many of us (or at least myself) for far too long (in favor of delicate kitten heels), handbags are structured, and maybe the pressure to spend 100 greenbacks on a tissue-thin, safety-pinned and destructed white tee is finally on its way out.

In short, it appears that the novelty of the heroin-chic revival has finally (and too late) worn off. This is good. Most normal people cannot (or just will not) wear tight black leather hotpants (or whatever cracked out fad that has circulated in and out over the last few years). Aside from being downright unflattering on most (all?) bodies, they aren't practical for most workplaces, and sitting in a sweltering classroom with the back of your thighs sticking to the chair while the leather scalds your ladyparts and the prof drones on and on? No thanks. Hemlines that are too short make modesty impossible, heels that are ridiculously high are hard to wear and let's face it, the cage heel has gotten incredibly passé. Etc. And spending so much money on clothes that look like they've gotten run-over by an ATV, twice - well, everyone knows it's ridiculous and yet we do it anyway.

Plus, along with the clothes (or lack there of) comes greasy bedhead, heavy black eyeliner and straggly extensions (TAYLOR MOMSEN!) - a tired cliché that no longer appears fresh, if it ever did, and I think most of us are ready to show a little hygiene every now and then. We should embrace clear, glowing skin and the occasional (or daily) red lip. I know I can't get enough of it.

So I welcome with open arms what's been creeping around the corner for a while now (and doubtless has been the standard for classic dressers everywhere throughout all the madness) the resurgence of full, late 50's inspired skirts and dresses, tailored pants and cardigan sweaters, sexy librarian looks, cape coats...





Aside from the mere fact that this revival means there might be an end in sight to a lot of the more hideous fashion trends that have been running rampant everywhere (even in my small town in Minnesota), it excites me for some other more personal reasons.

I've been a longtime lover of vintage clothing from all eras, but particularly the fifties and early sixties. (By the way, I am glad I didn't grow up in America during the fifties, since women definitely got the short end of the stick, there was a huge problem of sexual repression, and there were wide-spread pressures to be part of the nuclear family...ugh... but anyway). I think the styles fit and flatter my body-type - I'm fairly petite, but I have full hips and thighs and a decent waist (I think) and decent breasts - and I have the legs of a dancer, so I'm all for full skirts and nipped in waists. Plus, I love the music, the films, the dancing... and the feel of a good retro diner, so I'm all for this.

Also, it signals the rise of the curvier model - which I find heartening. I am so tired of seeing girls who look cracked out, fourteen years old, boyish and anorexic totter down runways in giant stiletto platforms that make them look like they have hooves, not feet - like bambi on methamphetamine. Not to condemn the models themselves - they are a product of the industry they must conform to in order to be hired, after all. I imagine most of them are just born that way, and I'm all for challenging the standards of beauty. A skinny extraterrestrial type can be beautiful, just as a curvy size 16 can be gorgeous. It's all about being comfortable in your own skin. But that doesn't mean we should all strive against the way nature intended us to be, and we shouldn't have to conform to one standard. This has all been said before - I'm just saying it again.

I hope the prediction comes true, and that it stays a while.

risen from a long slow sleep...

I'M BAAAAAAACK!

...

One year done with college, it's summer, and I'm living with a crazy group of students from the "other" school - the rival college in the town where I go to school - and we are putting on a musical. A coffee shop musical. Crazy? Yes - I keep asking myself how in the name of all that is sane and rational did I end up here? (Answer: open auditions, gave it a shot on a whim, got cast, decided what the hell, and...)

I am stepping out of my comfort zone in a major way, here, but I love it. I'm living with beautiful people, mostly strangers that are fast becoming trusted friends. That is a big thing for me - I'm definitely adjusting well, but living with ten people is a far cry from living with one roommate or with your parents.

I play a character named Libby, she is absolutely a dream to play - sweet, awkward, shy, and geeky (but with hidden spice and gumption!). We're taking the show on the Midwest Fringe Circuit - chicago, minneapolis, kansas city and indianapolis, which is sort of huge. Yes? Anyway, I don't want to go on to long here about the show, but if you would like more information, you can go to www.grindthemusical.com, which is up and running, although still a work in progress. We also have a twitter, @grindthemusical, and a facebook fan page.

But anyway, this blog - I'm-a try and actually update it at least every few days, with interesting things. Otherwise, what's the point of actually having it?
xoxoxo
siri

a love poem

this is a love poem
for lovers
lovers whose words
roll
off swollen lips
through sunburned hands that intertwine
neurotic
in hunger
lovers whose words alight
on smooth countenances
and
in juxtaposition
on stirring limbs
need coursing through veins
pooling
in soulful eyes
mercurial
in vulnerability
this
is a love poem for
lovers

November.

The leaves

Dead crispy frozen things

Crumble beneath our feet

And as your hand curls at the small of my back

I am crumbling also

At the whisper of your flannel

Against my hungry cheek

At the cold as it scorches my nostrils

Crackling into my lungs

Carrying with it the memory of burning fields

Mixed with the scent of you

At the way my voice doesn't seem to work anymore

At the way my hand curls

At the crook of your neck

All this as the leaves

make their frozen dead crispy crumbling way

into nothing

We are breaking apart.