First of all, I don't condone Googling oneself, and that's not quite what I did, seeing as I Googled my online moniker to see if anyone was saying anything...not about me, but about my narcissistic means of self-expression...because they're different, right? Anyways, I found out there's another Sienna in the world who goes by "CallMeSiSi"...wut. I mean, I don't know if I'm more weirded out at the serendipity or saddened at my apparent lack of originality. But it's okay, other SiSi...if you choose to Google yourself and find this entry, consider it a peace offering.



You've probably already seen this, if you're Facebook friends with me or have talked to me at all lately. I myself have watched it a bajillion times so far and have raved about it extensively. Every time I watch it, I pick a favorite accent she does initially, but have a different favorite by the end, and each time my favorites are different. So in conclusion, I like them all. Okay, by "favorite" there, I mean the one she did best, there are some clear-cut accents that are the most audibly pleasing for me. (Is "audibly pleasing" the right phrase? You know what I mean.)

I find accents fascinating, and many people I've talked to agree. I don't really understand this fascination, though...why is how other people talk so much cooler than how we talk? Is it just the novelty of it? Why are some accents more attractive than others and why do those accents vary for different people? And where do accents come from, in the first place? Like, if a language is established with its own lexicon and whatnot, what prompts people in a certain area to start pronouncing things differently? How does a trend like that start-does it just take one person speaking differently and others catch on?

So, yeah, accents are fascinating in that sense, and some are just really attractive, and it's hard to quantify why. Sure, some individual people have smoother/more melodious/just more attractive voices than others, but how does something like that apply to a group of people in general? I've noticed trends in the accents I find attractive. Wikipedia taught me about rhotic and non-rhotic accents (the difference between "walker" and "walk-uh", "park" and "pahk") (also the reason why we have "ass" in the US and "arse" in the US, apparently...the British confusion used to confuse me. Also, does that mean the origins of the word hav nothing to do with the donkey?), and the non-rhotic (where the r is not pronounced) accents are much prettier to me. I guess this is part of why I like British (also cause of my childhood S Club 7 obsession) and Southern (also, recently, because of my Fried Green Tomatoes/Idgie Threadgoode obsession) accents. But then I also like Irish and Scottish accents, which are quite the opposite in this sense. I think in these cases I actually like the sound of the pronounced r's, just because they sound so different. I guess it's just cool to hear a language you know and have always spoken, but pronounced totally differently. The intonation of these languages also has something to do with it. (While I'm at it, can someone describe a Welsh accent to me? I feel like I have a grasp on every other main British Isles accent except that one and Youtube hasn't helped much)



I mean, I hate how it sounds, but I say "walkerrrrr" and "parrrrrk", because I'd sound rediculous otherwise unless I switched accents completely (and affected accents are silly in and of themselves.I've noticed that when I want to make a sarcastic comment, I'll switch pronunciation, I guess to indicate that I'm not serious. A sarcastic/snarky "nice" comes out as a British "noice" or a Southern "nahce"), so maybe that's why I appreciate prettier pronunciations so much. Though come to think of it, I don't really have a "Philly" accent, minus a few traits...like, Midwesterners have called me out on saying har-rible for "horrible" and far-est for "forest" (When I first heard those words pronounced with an "or" sound like in "four" I actually thought it was the weirdest thing, until I left the Northeast and found out that large populations do so) and I've been trying my best to say "wooder" for "water" (though unless I'm talking about water ice I usually revert to the non-Philly way of saying it. I've always said that I don't call our, uh, lovely football team the Iggles (okay, I don't really talk about them in general so maybe I should be referring to times I talk about the band), but this article made me realize I pronounce "vague" as "vegg", so maybe I do shorten my vowels. I pronounce "radiator" with "rad" instead of "raid"(this one I stand by...why would I want to acknowledge that an appliance in my house is giving off radiation-sounds quite unpleasant to me)
     Still, I looked up the Philly dialect on Wikipedia and, while I still don't understand most characters in the International Phonetic Alphabet, from what I gathered from the page I don't pronounce things the way I theoretically should. Maybe I watched too much television growing up so I was influenced by other accents (I'm surprised and saddened that I didn't develop a British accent from all those years of watching Spice World and S Club 7 in *insert city here*)...though that does bring up the question of whether mass media is going to neutralize everyone's accents one day. That would be very sad...I guess future generations wouldn't even know the difference, but for me it would signify a further lack of national/regional identity, which seems to be the direction our society is taking already)...and accents are just so fun to listen to.

Hey, so I know I suck at Top 5 lists, but I'll try it again...closing this off with my Top 5 Favorite Accents of the Moment, in no particular order...

1. British, Londoner I suppose, though I really like Liverpudlian accents, and Brummie (a la Ozzy Osbourne...okay, maybe a bit toned down from him) accents have an interesting intonation.
2. Southern, though I don't think I'd be very happy living in the south, so I propose that lots of Southern ex-pats come be my friend and promise not to lose their accents (or at least keep a slight twang) and dress in adorable tomboyish 30s fashion and charm bees for me and...okay, I'm off topic. Sorry, got distracted. Leave me alone. I will say that my Idgie obsession makes perfect sense, seeing as I see so much of myself in Ruth Jamison (Like, I have the potential to be incredibly strong in the face of conflict, but I'd much rather smile sweetly and offer everyone a slice of pie as a peace offering)
3a. Castillian Spanish, whilst speaking Spanish
3b. Castillian Spanish, whilst speaking English. Actually, any Spanish-speaking person speaking English. I'd try everything before I'd make a Spanish teacher speak to me in English just because I didn't understand their Spanish, but getting them to Speak English because the sound of it brightens your academic day...
4. Irish (not being able to roll my R's in Spanish is a bit unfortunate, but not being able to do an Irish or Scottish accent because of it is downright sad.)
5. Minnesotan/Upper-Midwestern, even if it makes me think of Sarah Palin...actually, why does someone who was born in Idaho and spent her formative years in Alaska talk like that? reachingouttomiddleamericaFAIL?

Though I don't know if I'd actually want any of these accents, since I wouldn't appreciate them as much were that the case, in fact, they wouldn't seem like "accents" to me at all. It'd be cool to have a slight Southern twang or pronounce my o's kind of like a stereotypical Minnesotan would, but I'd still want to be able to squee! over people with really strong accents. Maybe if anything I'd just want a stronger Philly accent so I'd feel vaguely Philadelphian beyond the realm of soft pretzels and wooder ice and people would be able to identify me as such. Who knows...hey, if you feel like commenting (which I know you do)...what accents are your favorites on other people, and if you could have a different one, what would it be?

I sold the car to a guy named Peter...Peter Cottontail...

I can't believe I did it, but in that post on Media I forgot to mention one of my favorite things, if not my absolute favorite thing about my hometown: The Great Media Garage Sale! I think I know why I left it out, actually, since I haven't been since like the 11th grade. But I still miss it like whoa every year; I don't think there's a day when Media's sense of community (I just typed "cummumity"...make of that what you will) is stronger.

September's never been one of my favorite months. Fall's coming, everything in nature is dying, it means the beginning of the school year, which before college was a very bad thing, and even though I'm fine with school nowadays it still signifies some kind of disruption of life, which I've never been a fan of. But before the weather gets too cold, yard sale day comes around and everyone puts stuff out for cheap and you can walk around and talk to everyone and run into random people you hadn't seen in ages and it's great fun! Unfortunately, the street on which I grew up didn't attract many shoppers since it was relatively far off from the center of town and housed some unfriendly people. The upside was it gave me full reign to shop shop shop 'til I drop drop dropped. The downside was it meant I bought tons of junk every year and then had no means of selling it the next time garage sale day came around.

Anyhow, to exemplify how awesome this day is, here's an excerpt from my *gulp* Xanga from ages ago...Okay it's too poorly written so you won't get an actual passage of text, but here's the list of stuff I got when my friend and I walked up and down 10+ streets, all around town, to satisfy our packrat urges, complete with the ~s I used as flouncy bulletpoints when I was 15:

~ A bunch of old records (Boston, Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks, Steppenwolf, Jackson Browne )...Lydia bought the Captian and Tenile's greatest hits so that she can now play "Muskrat Love" whenever she feels the need to torture me.
~Lots of jewelry (IIRC it was a necklace that looked like a purse and some obnoxious tropical-looking earrings I wear to this day...as well as pineapple clip-on earrings that I've since lost)
~ Awesome Clothes
~And this wonderful movie:

The movie and a few records, and if I recall correctly, a few trashy novels I found (though the deluge of Jackie Collins books didn't come til next year...I'd problably be a much more intellectual person if I'd never gone through that phase), were free. Gotta love getting free stuff that you actually use (I still watch Santa Claus is Comin to town every year, and since ABC Family is being flaky with their holiday specials, the VHS comes in handy).

And then more free stuff comes the next day. Monday is trash day, so on Sunday everyone puts out the stuff they didn't sell and don't want to keep so people can rummage through it, and the day after that whatever's left over conveniently disappears, to sit in a landfill for 100 years. Actually, maybe that's part of why I like buying people's old stuff so much; I don't want it to go to waste so I let it clog up my closet in big boxes for years on end instead. Then, one day, I'll need, say a portable walkman tape player/AM radio, a bedazzler and a pair of clown pants (that'd be a fun night, wouldn't it?) and I won't have to go buy new ones. I also like old music and love the sound quality of records, so it makes sense to buy them for cheap. And I love the smell of the old paper of books and album liner notes, even if it's pure mildew. And, you know, cheap stuff is awesome by default.

More than anything, other people's stuff makes me feel connected to random strangers, people in my own town that I wouldn't say more than "hello" to otherwise. I like to know who else listened to that record (and create stories about how old they were and where they were when they first heard it), whose kids watched movie XYZ and when they decided they were "too old" for it (and one day they'll be my age and find it at a yard sale and decide to relive their childhoods like I did), and perhaps most importantly, who last devoured that Jackie Collins book and if they were reading it to laugh (this one's me when I judge the books' titles and covers), to escape (this one's me when I sit down in an airport and read one of them), or because they actually thought it was good literature (This one's not me, but sometimes I like to pretend that it is, especially with English teachers and the like). And the surprising number of people with trashy novels on their garage sale tables is always comforting; it's good to know I'm not alone. And I'd never actually pay money for an Engleburt Humperdink album or a formerly $5.99 Bejeweled CD-rom or someone's old perfume, I'm glad to know they're out there. To each their own?

And, of course, garage sales lent themselves to this gem from That 70s Show:

Everybody's Hometown

Had a relatively productive day today: finished most of my study abroad app for next Spring (First Choice: Brazil, Second Choice: Ecuador)! Meant to go on to do my Portuguese paper on Tropicalia/Os Mutantes, but one of the questions on the study abroad app distracted me: Describe your hometown. I answered the question sufficiently, but the 200 words I was allocated didn't really do it justice. So of course I decided to write a blog post about it!







Media, Pennsylvania. Everybody's Hometown. First Fair Trade Town in the US. I always miss you when I'm gone, but I never realize just how much I had missed you until I see you again.

First of all, the town is adorable! Cute little twin houses (most of the time each twin is painted in different a different color scheme and has a different type of fencing, or something of that sort...I LOVE IT. Took time in a cookie-cutter housing development to realize how wonderful mismatched houses are), tree-lined streets, compact cars with pro-peace, Quakerly bumper stickers...that one former parking sign warning of the sign-eating tree:


I'm too lazy to rotate it...so sue me. You get the idea.

Of course, there are the places that remeind me of my childhood. My elementary school, and the field across the street, which features a mural that we all painted in art class one day. My drawing is clearly the best: it's a little, out of proportion person, in between two dogs that are much better-drawn than anything I could've done in the second grade. I like to take people to it so they can laugh at me. I remember the playground and the street between the playground and the field, and how much I hated recess. I still don't know if I actually didn't like playing out side (Cause I do now...) or I just didn't like the fact that every other year my best friend, who was in a grade below me, wasn't in the same recess and I had to find new people to play with, knowing I'd abandon them the next year for the little kids. And the street corner outside the Catholic grade school, where I met my current BFF (Half of her name is etched in the mortar on the ground, and I just wikipedia'd "mortar" to make sure I was using the right word)...and the Wawa where one gets delicious hoagies and the Rita's water ice where I used to aspire to work when I was little. And the Media theater, where I saw tons of musicals (and where I'm seeting RENT in May, front row center) and once attended acting camp. And the ice cream shop, and the places where the toy store and the water ice shop used to be, and...And the trolley that's usually running through town (right now it's being restored and there are shuttle buses running in its place...lame), which I was always afraid of being run over by, and the Coffee Club, where I used to go watch the Puppet Master (can't even begin to explain her...eccentric woman with coke-bottle glasses who lip-synched with a figurine that looks exactly like her), and where I completed my study abroad app, and...And here's a video of her I found!



And there are so many weird little places. Sure, you have the theater and boutiques and restaurants. Then you have the coffee shops, many of which serve fair trade coffee thanks to us being a fair trade town and all. Then you have the Veteran's museum underneath Trader Joe's (the whole place used to be an armory). I finally visited earlier this week with a friend. I could tell not many people came there; the guy working there seemed really excited to see us and tell us all he knew about each war and all the equipment. Which was a lot. But he knew so much that he got an avowed pacifist like me to be entirely enthralled by all of it. And the Delco Institute of Science, which when I first went in seemed totally out of place in Media, but I love that it's there (lots of taxidermy and preserved butterflies and stuff).

And in warm weather, there are street fairs and live music and weird theme nights. That just make everyone want to come out and show how much they love the town. I really couldn't live anywhere without some sense of community, somewhere without sidewalks (without them it feels like residents don't want people walking around and talking to eachother), without a mainstreet, or without character. I'm all for exploring new places and moving around, but if I end up living around here later on in life, I wouldn't pick anywhere else. Wherever I end up in the future, right now, it's good to be home!