Rasmenia Massoud

Polaroid photo of a 4-years-old yours truly bedecked in a glorious Batman costume circa 1977. Behind me on the kitchen counter are random objects of the era: a plastic pitcher. A six-pack of Pepsi in bottles. A solitary brown onion.

Happy Halloween, y’all. 🎃

Another Invisible Ghetto A Quick Announcement About a New Thing

I’ve written another book. It’s about awful things like trauma and gentrification. It’s also about wonderful things like helping one another and fighting back however you can.

#writingcommunity #booksky 💙📚

Digital collage depicting an elderly couple seated on a bench, surrounded by a sea of molten lava beneath burning red skies. Next to them, a clock sinks in the burning sea. Volcanoes erupt in the distance, dinosaurs trudge through the molten sea as pterodactyls fly overhead. In the center of it all, stand the ruins of two ancient doorways, on the other side of their thresholds, blue skies and a bright clear ocean shine through the apocalyptic gloom.

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sudden Light

#collage #procreate #digitalcollage #poetry

Anywhere there is a dream in America, there's someone lining up a pyramid scheme.

Unsurprisingly, The Oatmeal nails it in this comic.

“Even if you don't work in the arts, you have to admit you feel it too - that disappointment when you find out
something is AI-generated.“

Reading for pleasure has fallen by 40 percent since 2000. This is not progress. You should read because it's good for your brain, your soul. You should read because our freedoms will not long endure in a post-literate world. Most of all, you should read because it's fun.

The Road to Nowhere Here, the hurt stops. The fear dies. Dread cannot survive.

For a moment, we were invincible.

#ozzy #musicsky #ozzyosbourne #blacksabbath #metal #heavymetal #writingcommunity

A few magpies hanging out in a dead tree, surrounded by dry, brown grass beneath a bright blue sky and scattered clouds.

We were walking wherever our dog told us to go. I said to my husband that it was getting colder and he pointed out that the autumn equinox had snuck up on us again. “Another summer in the bucket before we kick it,” he said. We laughed. Then we got silent, the way you do when you remember you’re gonna die. Then the magpies in the tree laughed. I know better, though. They were definitely laughing at us, not with us.

Magpies are jerks.

#autumn #writingcommunity #nature

Illustration that says ‘no ai slop.’ AI in blue lettering and ‘slop’ brown and dripping, looking like poop, all behind a red circle with a line through it.

The next best thing to not spreading slop is refusing to engage with slop.

#noai #writingcommunity #antiai #aislop #art #procreate

radical left rhetoric is like "give people health care and let trans kids chill and don't let cops kill black people, also here are some books i like"

Comic book style drawing of Harry Dean Stanton in the Wim Wenders film, Paris Texas. He’s wearing a suit and tie with a red cap, clouds and desert behind him as he looks off into the distance.

Text only: I drew this almost 2 years ago and wasn’t happy with it. When I looked at it, I couldn’t see past the janky lines. The lack of shading. The difficulty I had (and still have) with facial hair and eyebrows. And that ear. What the fuck is going on with that ear? I fixated on the places where I erased and tried again. And again. But now, I kind of love it. Those mistakes and difficulties show that I was learning. I can now see what’s beneath those janky lines: me, at peace, in the moment, making something and absorbing myself in Harry Dean’s incredible, emotive face. I see the story of me making something just for the joy of creating and the love of an unforgettable artist. What I see is human. So, yeah… you should make stuff even if you think it looks like shit. Because it’ll still be better than ai slop, which absolutely looks like shit and has no stories of its own to tell.

AI slop has no stories to tell. You do.

#noai #filmsky #procreate #comic #art #writingcommunity

I love him! Unfortunately, I didn’t see the artist’s signature. I might’ve just passed by too quickly.

Street art depicting an image reminiscent of Magritte’s ‘Son of Man,’ only the figure extends beyond the painting’s frame, revealing he’s wearing shorts and his legs are covered in tattoos. Artist’s signature at the bottom is Catman.

Street art depicting a surprised looking otter drinking a pint of beer.

Various street art images. Most prominently shown is a big tooth painted by street artist Molar. The molar is sporting an Irish flag balaclava like Kneecap’s DJ Provai.

Street art of a robot.

I’ve called a few different places home. That happens when you stop moving around for a time. But this place feels like my place and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of walking through these streets.

#brighton #brightonandhove #streetart

Sun setting as 3 girls pose for a photo, their faces obscured by shadow. Text in the center of photo is a book quote from a book titled ‘You Don’t See Any of This’ that reads: “August is that last flicker of fun and heat before everything fades and dies. The final moments of fun before the freeze. In the winter, everything changes.”

Summer’s almost gone.

#bookquote #writingcommunity

Paperback book titled: Advertising Shits in Your Head by Vyvian Raoul and Matt Bonner. Font is in neon red lettering.

“We have always seen culture as the spaces and places where society tells stories about itself. Every society has a space where these stories are told and in our culture it’s advertising that dominates these spaces (both physical and digital).”

-Bill Posters 📚💙

#booksky

Man, that new Wolf Alice is making a lot of noise. I really need to sit down with it and give it a listen.

Album cover of Cave World by the Viagra Boys

Album cover of Buried Out Back by Chris Casey

Salad Days album cover by Minor Threat

Repackaged II album cover by Sex Mex

Show us the last four albums you listened to.

#last4albums #musicsky

#viagraboys
#chriscasey
#minorthreat
#sexmex

Three frame comic depicting a larger photo of a high-rise building, all the windows reflecting the blue sky and white clouds. First frame reads: Whole libraries of books are lost forever. Second frame reads: While we build monolithic data centers in the desert, Third frame reads: monuments to selfies.

Comic by asofterworld.com

YouTube video by Steve Cutts A perfect day at the office 🤖 #shorts #animation #automation #stevecutts

“... maybe it's a sneaking feeling that people are wrong when they say human beings can't keep track of the world any more, we have to leave it up to the machines. I don't want to be hung out to dry on a dead branch of the evolutionary tree.”
― John Brunner

#stevecutts #automation #animation

That ugly-ass grok AI slop is a disappointing thing to see here.

Album cover of The Silver Tongued Devil and I by Kris Kristofferson

Album cover of Small Changes by Michael Kiwanuka

Album cover of The Whole Family is Worried by Misty Miller

Cover of The Cars eponymous debut album.

Show us the last four albums you listened to.

#last4albums #musicsky

Vintage magazine image of 50s era white blonde woman holding up a piece of paper that says, “STOP BEING SHOCKED BY REPEATED BEHAVIOR.” The woman’s eyes are pure white with no pupils or irises, but still twinkle with stars in her eyes.

Always Shocked by Figaro Many

#art #collage

It's always reasonable to unfollow (or block!) people who post ai. In posting ai they're broadcasting their disregard for truth, art, the environment, and basic human interrelationships! You don't need to voluntarily remain connected to that bad vibe.

In the lower left couple, an elderly couple stand with their arms around one another watching an apocalyptic scene. Tall rocks in front of them and a wolf stands next the carcass of a dead wolf being picked at by crows. Other crows linger on the rocks and one flies into the sky, which is glowing black and orange. Sun, moon, and planets swirl into the burning clouds and stars.

“Oh, you know when the world ends
I'm gonna take you aside and say
‘Let's watch it fade away, fade away’
And the world's done, ours just begun
It's done, ours just begun”

-Dave Matthews Band, When the World Ends

#procreate #collage #digitalcollage #art #musicsky

A golden age panel of Clark Kent walking on the deck of a cruise ship. Narration: “Later….“ Clark is talking to himself: “So once again the world is being flung into a terrible conflagration! How senseless!“

Interior of bar, taps serving Guinness, Coors, and a few others. Pint glasses to the left. In the background, a couple of kegs of Belfast Black stout and lager can be seen.

Interior of bar portraying corner of bar and intricate decor: stained glass windows, pattern on tile floor, carved wood along bar, etc.

Pint of Guinness in front of a little stained glass window.

Carved wooden lion figure and shield with stained glass windows and ornate ceiling in the background. Very fancy and old timey.

The Crown Bar
Belfast, Northern Ireland

side profile image of a white dog with her ears back and worried expression on her face, in a black circle, surrounded by hand lettered text that reads “maybe i was never meant to toughen up, maybe i was meant to make the world a little softer.”

make the world a little softer.

Painting depicting an arm clutching a flaming bouquet of flowers that is wrapped in newspaper. The paper is the Unprecedented Times and the front-page headline reads: THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR RAGE.

Rage by Lindsey Cherek Waller

#art

Album cover for PO$T AMERICAN by Dead Pioneers

Album cover of Humble as the Sun by Bob Vylan

Album cover for Bubblegum XX by Mark Lanegan

Album cover of Home to the Country by Tom Green

Show us the last four albums you listened to.

#last4albums #musicsky