Kimberly’s Roomf

Not unusual

Visiting Riverside landmark, Tio’s Tacos, I’m sure to see something I’ve never seen before. Well-known as a destination for outsider art tomfoolery (with a side of refried beans and a pineapple water), it’s a delightful mess. After this morning’s coffee run I made a quick run through Tio’s, and was hardly shocked by how much the roof of Kimberly’s Room had grown …

Kim's playhouse

Kimberly’s room is a little girl’s playhouse, that is, like everything else at Tio’s, completely festooned with all manner of decoration, including in this case: a big wheel; a distressed Betty Boop cutout; a baleful kitty; a slow, kids at play advisory; a Winnie-the-Pooh folding chair; a welcome sign; a nerf hammer; various stuffed animals and dolls; and my faves, two concrete figurines of Mexican kid show TV characters, Chespirito and El Chavo del 8, life-sized and hand-less. And that’s the outside. The inside is an equally mescaline-induced vision of what a little girl’s room would be like, although at Tio’s it seems to make sense. So, it’s only natural that Kim’s room’s roof would be a riot of succulents with schwarzkopf aeoniums squiggling upward like at Pee-Wee’s place, and huge aeonium rosettes peeking over like giant cartoon posies … I don’t know if a little girl named Kimberly ever rode that big wheel or slept in the bed inside her succulent-topped casita; I’m inclined to believe the sign on the door is a found object like so many others at Tio’s … just another piece that triggered an uncontrolled impulse to create an entire world around it.