The Art of Amare

omg ok so I have a lot more resources!

first of all, for learning the letters, you can try this online guide to the Arabic alphabet or this Arabic reading course.

second of all, there's a German linguist on here that put together this awesome mega drive of language textbooks. for Arabic, go to Asia -> West and Central Asia -> Arabic. there's MSA and lots of colloquial options, although MSA has way more resources than anything else. and there's a script section where you can grab Mastering Arabic Script: A Guide to Handwriting (also available on libgen, which is what's linked here).

if you're trying to learn MSA, you can accompany the Alif Baa and Al-Kitaab series with multimedia from this web companion. this is for the second edition which I think is what's available on the mega drive (if not, check libgen - here's direct links to Alif Baa, 2nd ed., Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One, 2nd Ed., and Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya: A Textbook for Intermediate Arabic: Part Two, 2nd Ed.).

additionally, you can use Arabic: An Essential Grammar from the Internet Archive to improve your grammar skills.

you can also get practice using the University of Cambridge's Arabic Essentials programme.

and Al-Jazeera also has a programme for practicing reading MSA.

now, if you're interested in Classical (aka Quranic) Arabic, you can get started with Madinah Arabic's free courses, which includes lessons on the script. then the Internet Archive has all the Madinah Arabic books with audio!

next, if you want to learn Palestinian Spoken Arabic, I have options for you!

unfortunately, the mega drive's Levantine section is pretty sparse. but I have a couple textbook options myself!

Eastern Arabic with MP3 Files An introduction to Palestinian Arabic is available on the Internet Archive.

Colloquial Palestinian Arabic: An Introduction to the Spoken Dialect is available with audio on libgen. You can also download the book and audio separately, if you prefer. There's also an Anki deck for this textbook (you can get Anki here).

anyway, @letme-have-thismoment, I hope this helps!

Red Woods by Robin Tran

GLOBAL STRIKE FOR GAZA BEGINS TODAY!!!

To participate:

During the 21st - 28th of January...

We have been asked to strike during these days by the lovely & hardworking journalist Bisan from Gaza. Let's all try our best for a people being tested with the harshest conditions imaginable. The occupation must be held accountable.

We're in this together!!

Entirely for @hellmandraws‘ amusement, and to defend America from the charge of being “weakass babies” I’m going to liveblog eating licorice candy.

okay first of all, the packaging. there’s a cartoon monkey ecstatically making love to a candy monkey. Perhaps an indicator of the orgasmic bliss I’m about to experience. 12/10. my hopes, like the people who designed this bag, are obviously very high

the candy looks like rocks and not jaunty little monkeys. huge disappointment. I had to recreate stonehenge to rally my flagging spirits. 2/10

First taste: wow this is salty! I think I actually like this. I love anise so I’m pretty sure this is going to be a trip to flavortown. 8/10 me rn:

OMG THE SALT WORE OFF IT’S SO MUCH WORSE THAN I EVER IMAGINED.

IT’S LIKE EATING A SHOE.

IS THIS CANDY?

IS THIS WHAT MAKES SCANDINAVIANS SO POWERFUL?

I’m chewing and it won’t go away

it’s stuck to my teeth, I’ll be tasting this forever. shards of this will be discovered in my teeth when my body is excavated from an archeological dig tens of thousands of years in the future. somehow the smell has traveled up through my nasal cavity and all I can sense, hear, or experience is licorice. the world is an empty vessel filled with remorse and the cloying smell of decay. I’m at the nadir of my existence. -100/12

somehow, here, standing at the edge of eternity, the darkness that consumed me birthed me anew. I’m not only ready for another candy, I’m eager. I can, nay I must, immediately eat another

oh wow it’s salty! 8/10

this time I’m ready for the salt to wear off. 

I WAS NOT READY

the flavor this time was different, and somehow so much worse. instead of the leather of a shoe, it was like eating an entire shoe factory. the industrial rubber of the forklift tires, a hint of diesel as secretive as a volkswagen scandal, a soupçon of hot tin roof, the sweat of non-unionized labor, and a pervasive sense that while we’re all in this together, some of us are more all in this than others. 1/10 throw off your shackles, taste buds

I can’t believe it but I’m into this. I like this. shocked and disgusted with myself, I shove 2 more into my mouth concurrently.

conclusion: I’ve become addicted to licorice candy. what is in this. how do I get more. I hate this? I hate this. I willingly admit I’m a weakass baby. 100/10 will cycle through destruction and rebirth willingly and with open eyes, albeit it with teeth that will never again be clean.

@karanan

I am not letting this get lost in the tags @bitsypookums. I am so happy to represent all Swedes as "the Swede" (tm) haha. Also djungelvrål is one of my absolute favorites, no joke 😂😂

elon musk should kill himself elon musk needs to kill himself elon musk would make society as a whole better if he killed himself now

Sorry to break the theme of the blog but a lot of people who post their incredible works here use Twitter so

Reblogging this for a second time because your art will also be used in AI training models, apparently.

Artist pals, heads up

What the fuck

proud to never have used twitter or x in my life but artist friends need to hear this

my mum just called "scrolling on Tumblr" "scrumbling"

we should consider that your mum is correct

there's been a couple of people who agreed that it should catch on and become a word, so maybe you're right 🤔

just scrumbled past this

Been scrumbling for a while. Glad I saw this.

you can't do this to me

yes we can 😌

NOOOOOO

Local archivist ironically hates assistant, ironically

Oh Season 4 Jon, you're sure in it now.

Just me doing some casual painting with my current comfort blorbo. He isn't doing great :)

I need a little help here