Things I Learned From Books Over The Summer (incl. 40s sexism)

He ‘encouraged’ her by remarking , “This is so good you would not know it was by a woman.”

My Podcast Episode 37 at Different Brains Spectrumly Speaking

Hello all. I’ve had a productive month of ups and downs, just getting over shingles actually. I’m feeling better. I hope to post actual WRITING here soon, instead of updates. But I wanted to mention the podcast interview that aired today. Link follows this post. I’ve been doing a lot of software work, digital art, […]

I’ve Never Written About My MeToos (and I’m not doing that here)

This blog post is interspersed with some of my newest paintings (no digital one’s here, these are paint) that I have been working on over the last few months. Some are collage as well. In some cases, I’m posting here just portions of the canvas as these paintings are in unfinished states. I’ve also been […]

In Progress, An Unfinished Church

So I’m doing this: My glasses are taped to the sugar canister in an attempt to stretch them. I’ve been doing steady at-home close work and so I’ve been wearing them more than usual… I ended up with a swollen and very sore scalp, which is painful even to rest on a pillow. My elbows […]

Only So Much A Soul Can Bear?

Sometimes I feel like a sponge.

Updates to my website

I’ve been working on updating my personal author/artist website all week. Do visit! Tell me what you think. And if you’ve got a link you think I should add to the links page, send it to me. Here is the link. Kim

On Curiosity

My autodidactic passion for learning is perpetual. And Einstein is right. Question everything. There’s a reason for curiosity. It leads to lots of things. On that note, why would someone make curious art like this? Because they can. Because it’s cool. Art. Here is a story about a mural I painted years ago. The woman […]

Finally reading 5 people you meet in heaven

“My ideal teaching planet would have 8 to 10 rabid, maniacal, fanatic art majors… hungry for the zeal of artistic exploration (!) inspired by the mere hint or crick of the eye wrinkle of one my aging octogenarian professors (…yes Emeritus). When I was an art student, I immersed………

The day I met Polly (a.k.a. Donna Williams-Samuel)

The following is an excerpt from my book, with some changes. ————————– I was taming a steaming pot of wild spaghetti with a wooden spoon when the phone rang. The water had been boiling at quite a roil. If I didn’t stay alert, I sometimes had fires. I had fires a lot. “Hello?” “Kimbuhrley?” Said […]

Mannequin and Doll Musing

It’s the startlingly lifelike mannequin that has been standing at the shop’s window for the past 85 years. According to local legends, the mannequin is in fact the preserved, mummified corpse……

My Road Trip, In Pictures

I watched a woman walk by; carrying a fairly large shiny brass elephant. I saw homeless people pushing carts; as usual in big cities- a sharp contrast between suited coiffed shiny people, and abject poverty.

Disconnecting Through Connection

In a book I read a few weeks ago (author Jim Sterba’s ‘Frankie’s Place’), Jim refers to reading material that one brings into the bathroom to read as “toi lit.” This term stayed with me-I found it way too amusing. It can be seen as a reflection of times that have changed. Think about it. I’ve […]

Back Off Pigweed OR: Just Enough On The Plate

Deserted houses, forgotten outbuildings, abandoned vehicles, long vacant parking lots, and sunken ships. They’ve all got something in common. Nature gobbles them up. Underground roots (rhizomes) undermine the integrity of foundations. Ivy creeps stealthily into cracks. Temperature extremes, dampness, insects and various wild animals- all play a role in reclaiming structures. In the sea, artificial reefs […]

Having A Walmart Brain

Above: This is an example of a 25 hundred dollar mirror with superb “psyche” tilt. That’s an actual term. Below: a French Budoir mirror (Etsy). And Below: WalMart mirror. Functional simplicity. There are some grand sounding words associated with mirrors. For instance: gadrooning (leaves, flowers, birds, etc. carved on the frame), psyche (the mechanism that […]

Books and Babble; a little wounded, a little dark

Because stuff needs tending. Heaps of unswept dog hair and dirty laundry piles, they’d loom like laughing spectres (we are overthrowing the household!); that’s why! My middle son and I were just discussing today how we share a love of learning. I recently learned that elephants (notably African and Asian) stay pregnant nearly two years! Why […]

BETWEEN THE GREYS

Somewhere on the planet as I type this; gurgling, burbling geothermic hotspots spurt predictably (like certain presidential candidates) and just like Old Faithful, Pixar presents us with another animated film. Inside Out is about feelings; so I was putting this one off. Eventually I did give it a watch. Turns out it’s literal, it runs […]

Word Power

Firstly, I want to state that this is what fiddlehead ferns and sidewalk purselane look like: They are both fun to say. Fiddlehead ferns. Purselane. That’s the beauty to be found in words. Anyone ever have a kit of these magnetic words that were/are available at Barnes and Noble; for the refrigerator? Interesting sentences can […]

Tinsled Rhetoric

Here it comes. Some more neurons from yours truly, firing off like ping pong balls. When I’m not enjoying the promise of Autumn with short walks to visit old paths and stones in walls I had almost forgotten, I have been compiling thoughts like so many layers of onion. Here, I peel them. I share with […]

Some things to smile about (or…having a rich varied thought life:)

Some things that make me smile in no particular order: Planning and partaking in art projects. Generating a love for the arts and for reading. Learning new things. Reading an engaging book. Receiving feedback about my book. I received a book of cows doing yoga for Christmas from my middle son and I was dreading […]

International Autistic Pride Day: June 18th. Splurge, fish and take public transportation too…

International Autistic Pride Day: June 18th. I missed this celebrated awareness day last year. On any given day something is celebrated to “raise awareness.” June 18th is: NATIONAL DUMP THE PUMP DAY On the third Thursday in June, National Dump the Pump encourages people to ride public transportation, instead of driving, and save money. NATIONAL […]

OLIVER SACKS On The Move

All of this creates problems of organization. I get intoxicated, sometimes, by the rush of thoughts and am too impatient to put them in the right order. But one needs a cool head, intervals of sobriety, as much as one needs that creative exuberance.

Delphinapterus Leucas in a Small Town

“A tree is best measured when it is down—and so it is with people.” —from a documentary on creative process, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, which was released in 1987. Lincoln: The War Years… Bob Wilson is right. It is true of people too. When society […]

Crows To Roses

“The power of morality is not something that is talked about much these days, especially among contemporary people. But when we look at it from the point of view of commitments as a form of morality, and when we SEE how the Buddhists treat making and keeping commitments as a form of morality, then we can come to a better understanding of Ghandi’s work and how it continues to reverberate with us.”

My 101st blog

WILHELM: This has the distinction of being my 101st blog; which is more of an achievement to me than having completed my 100th blog, because 101 has two ones in it and as such is a better number than 100! That said I wanted to mention the infamous Wilhelm scream. It can be heard […]

CAN WE TALK? (about pet peeves)

You know that book: “Eats Shoots and Leaves” (by Lynne Truss)? I used to think it was about some kind of mammal, maybe a panda, that eats shoots and leaves. Then I put on my glasses and noticed the comma: “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.” Now that implies that someone eats, then shoots, then leaves… Entirely […]

Interpretting White Roses

salus in ardunis sancte et sapienter Alice In Wonderland Syndrome…(or as it’s also called: Todd’s Syndrome or Lillipution Hallucinations) sounds made-up but it’s a very real condition. People seem fine optically, but they have weird visual perceptions. They have what’s termed a “rare form of migraine” (migrainous ischemia?). All of their senses are strangely distorted. The […]

IF

If it weren’t for the moon, to slow Earth’s spin, we’d have 6 hour days instead of 24. If Teddy Roosevelt hadn’t been carrying his speech in a metal eyeglasses container that October night in 1912 when John Schrank shot him, the bullet would’ve killed him. If Al Capone hadn’t compulsively carried his trademark mirror […]

Reflections On a Life, Ghoti equals FISH, ALS challenge

“Poopsy. Come back,” It was my father’s voice on the CB radio. “Come back” meant something like “Do you copy me? Do you here me? Please reply.” My husband was driving. We were on the way to New Hampshire for a vacation; my only child at the time was 5 or 6 and asleep in […]

I will always see W’s on Bulldogs now

“She has double-u’s all over her,” said my two and a 1/2 year old granddaughter. “What? Minnie the dog has ‘W’s” all over her? Really?” I replied to her, laughing. At first I thought that this was a form of Onomatopeia (which is Greek for making up words to explain noise; but in […]

A more interesting word without “U”

Obscure: the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant. I forgot the library’s closed on Mondays and it was there on my shelf so I picked up my memoir. For some obscure reason, (imagine ME obscure? Right, I know) I decided to reread my book “Under the Banana Moon.” Well actually it can be […]

Sharp Little Pencil Addresses My Faux Pas and Makes Me Smile

I need to get something out of my system: “Fizzling Fireboxes!” “Well… Flatten my funnel!” “Oh! Trembly tracks!” There, that’s better. I’ve been watching CPTV’s Thomas The Tank Engine with a 2 year old. Thomas gets into mischief on that program. He’s called the “cheeky” engine for a reason. He’s also an example for […]

Rantings of a logophile

I’m into obscure things. If you’ve read this blog you already know that. This forum, for me, is kind of an information purge of sorts. It’s like a safe place where I can say things like moon pigeons and alphabet juice and electric ketchup. Oddball conundrums keep my brain cells happy. Let me explain the […]

Life is a Fractal; RIP Maya

The essence of living things are cascades of fractals. Related patterns recur enthusiastically at progressively smaller scales… seemingly random but decidely chaotic. Deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA) with its double helix entwined like a ladder. Cells. Fractals are seen with the “naked” eye, as in this beehive: And they are unseen (as in this close-up view of […]

It Rains Diamonds on Uranus; Happy Mother’s Day Carol

…I was thinking that sometimes inspiration isn’t so bold that it’s wearing a velour jumpsuit. Sometimes it’s as simple as a cartwheeling spider or a rainbow tree. Noticing (and seeking out) beautiful eccentricities enhance my life. But I’m getting ahead of myself… So, picture this: A young black man is scheduled as keynote speaker to […]

Passions Pursued, HONY, Pandora and Unicorns

“They were expecting it to be nothing but unicorns shitting rainbows…” Ever browse Humans Of New York (HONY)? Think this: a photographer named Brandon who admits to, at some point being obsessed with things like aquariums, piano, baritone, New York City, etc. His current passion brings us pictures of New Yorkers, taken in a purposely […]

Work ethic, Dr. Suess and if I was a Tree

I ‘met’ someone recently who used to work in retail and I did my share of that too so I was reminiscing about my years ‘working with the public.’ I told him that I did my best. That’s all anyone can do. I found lots of expired merchandise in my “Health […]

it’s that month again, here’s what I’ve been up to, in part

the infamous puzzle piece? Yeah I know, it’s very cliche Here’s what I’ve been up to: (Keep in mind there are several links on this blog. Don’t forget to come back and read the rest…Or click them when you finish reading…) http://barkingsycamores.wordpress.com/current-issue/ The above link is from a “neurodivergent” sister site on wordpress who […]

Queen Anne’s Lace and violent outbursts of energy

I love this so-called weed. Don’t go there. This blog is not about that kind of weed. I mean an actual weed. It’s roots smell like carrots. It’s leaves smell like parsley. When seeds form, the flower is a balled up nest. Its white cluster of flowers form an umbrella. It’s the white Queen Anne’s […]

Young Women making a difference: Amy Gravino, Dani Bowman, Erin Clemens

Living in the eastern part of the U.S. in this cold winter of ’14 (if you are anything like me) has made me somewhat of a bibliobibuli; that is to say; lost in books and not too involved in nature or in ‘the world.’ My standard book consumption […]

J. Moore’s Book, Memory, and Tattooed Pigs

JJ has this theory that memory is still there; like in a computer; in the recesses of your brain. Like you never really forget things; not even in regard to Alzheimers. He feels that you never really delete anything from your hard drive per se. As in with […]

Some of Crows’ and Ravens’ Roles in Fairy Tales and myth and Literature

I think of ravens and crows interchangeably. I can’t help it; I just do. Ravens are bigger in size although there are other differences too; like their voices. Supposedly the crow can say ‘uh-huh’, ‘caw’, ‘eh-aw’, ‘kow’, ‘aww’, and sound real nasal, whereas the raven is harsher and says things like ‘kraa’, or it makes […]

Peeves, Yeats, Hurdles, Goldilocks, importance of full stops

I function “best” when I’m in the Goldilocks zone. That is to say, when it’s not ‘too’ this, and it’s not ‘too’ that. When everything is going along just right in the world in a nice practiced routine. But who doesn’t function best like that, right? But take for instance a family member I once […]

weather patterns, Donna Williams, fruit salad, Buddha

Donna Williams says (in a brilliant analogy) that autism is a fruit salad, which I infer to mean, that everyone’s fruit bowl looks a bit different. Mine has Aspergers bananas in it, with selective mutism lemons, sensory processing dysfunction prickly pears, and dysthymic mangos. There are other fruits in there too. Like anxious horned melon […]

10 Genius Minds With Surprising Habits and Pasttimes

EINSTEIN: The lake was as smooth as a sheet of glass. Not a breeze stirred. Who would take their sailboat out with nary a breeze to stir a nostril hair? Einstein. He said, “I like the challenge.” I would suppose that’s how new solutions unveil themselves to attentive minds. An attentive mind he surely had. […]

Augusten Burroughs and me and also Egyptians and Stuff

“Guess I have to kill you now”, I joked during our ‘bathroom time’. He rolled his eyes and had this stern face which was his mask, the ‘mask of ALS’ (Lou Gehirgs) as it was called in the newsletter we got delivered to the house. His facial muscles were so weak that he had a […]

Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

Imagine writing and illustrating a book so bizarre (but intriguing) that decades later people are still drawn to it and NO ONE has been able to decode the secret language you made up, nor are they able to understand what your mind boggling illustrations mean?! Hey that’s a feat, eh? Look at one of the […]

Fascinating modern architecture to 1700 manor houses…it’s all good

Recently I’ve been reflecting about architecture. I’m reading a historical book called The Manor: Three centuries at a slave plantation on Long Island by Mac Griswold. This 70 year old woman, Mac, is a cultural landscape historian, a fascinating job. When she was a little girl in the 1950s growing up in New Jersey, […]

Under the banana moon finally has an official website

http://mercurygirl49.wix.com/underthebananamoon-1 Finally my book has an official website. After days of working on this site for my book, I can get back to blogging! Kim

Feeling around in a flowery diction

Have you ever felt you resided inside that place in a harmonica where moist breath and music meet? Have you ever felt like one of those perfectly imperfect pine trees that grow sideways on golf courses? Ok well have you ever felt like a collection of soft blue, pink, white grey lint, like the kind […]

The Flourish of Names, Signatures from the Past and Present

Can you believe this signature of Jacob (Jack) Lew, treasury secretary? I love it. No one else did. After all it was destined for an appearance on U.S. currency for the duration of his tenure. You know those signatures on money?He was asked to submit a more legible signature to grace […]

LOST ART of Dr. Suess, Books, Mosaics and Pleasure in Broken Pieces

Why mosaics? I like the shiny full color allure of “coffee table” books. The large exotic collection of pictures I never tire of. There are three such books I am finding myself picking up over and over. I’ve owned them for years. I share them with visiting children, I open them for peaceful […]

Contemplation on Dead Greyhounds and Women’s Rights; Ultimately Life Lessons

Some people are surely meant to be in our lives, but not necessarily to be in them for a lifetime. I think of course of those people in my own life who came and went on in death before I would’ve liked. My spouse left three children whose ages were 23, 14 and 9. I […]

The Elephant Keeper, a quick overview of a stunning book

I rarely write a book review but The Elephant Keeper screams to be understood, and to be read. If you do read it, you may come away from it stuck in your head but not able to really understand what just happened. Doesn’t that have the makings of a good read? One that makes you […]

Despair and quoting from my favorite book of meditations

There’s a word for the sound of wind blowing through the trees, which incidentally happens to be one of my pet sounds: “psithurism.” (That’s the word.) I can’t however, attain any psithurism presently because I’m in the house. I hope to be outside later, even if it’s just to eat at my picnic table…That said, […]

A Kinship; A Means of Communication

Growing up, I never bothered looking at people long enough to see them as anything other than blurry models out of Matisse paintings; jumbled but interesting. I especially hated pictures of relatives hanging on walls. You could never ever avoid their staring eyes. I’d have to dash past them. I […]