Some days the city just hands you a high five. A sleepy cat the size of an apartment. A wall that turns into a joke. A drain that sprouts tentacles. Here are 12 pieces of street magic that can rescue a bad mood in seconds.
More: Made Me Smile Instantly (8 Photos)
🦛 Wall Hippo — Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦
Plot twist: the wall has a hippo. It’s painted so clean it looks like it’s leaning over the edge, casually people-watching with the mountains behind it. Simple gag. Perfect execution.
More: See more feel-good street art
🔗 Follow Falko One on Instagram ↗
💤 Deep Sleep — Jack Lack in Grenoble, France 🇫🇷
Nothing projects calm quite like a sleeping cat. Jack Lack painted this gigantic feline resting peacefully across an entire apartment building. Looking up at this massive, cozy beast on your way to work has to lower your blood pressure.
More: See more from Jack Lack
🔗 Follow Jack Lack on Instagram ↗
🎣 The Rooftop Fisherman — Chur, Switzerland 🇨🇭
Meet the most relaxed giant in town: a fisherman perched on the roofline, rod hanging out over the street. The scale is ridiculous, and that’s the point — you can’t not look up.
More: More reality-bending street moments
🐱 Lamp Post Cats — Woskerski in Larne, Northern Ireland 🇬🇧
Two ginger cats. One street lamp. Instant chaos. Their paws line up with the real pole so well it feels like the wall is mid-pounce. Street meets mural — clean, funny, and impossible to ignore.
More: See more from Woskerski
🔗 Follow Woskerski on Instagram ↗
🐹 Tiny Breakthrough — David Zinn in Michigan, USA 🇺🇸
A crack in the pavement becomes a tiny stage. Out pops a little character, arms up like it just won something. That’s David Zinn’s superpower: turning boring sidewalk damage into a quick laugh.
More: See more from David Zinn
🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram ↗
🤐 Unzipped Building — Alex Chinneck in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹
Alex Chinneck is a master of architectural illusions. He took a historic stone building in Milan and attached a giant zipper to it, making it look like the facade was being casually unzipped to reveal glowing light inside. Pure genius.
More: See more from Alex Chinneck
🔗 Follow Alex Chinneck on Instagram ↗
🎺 Trombone Player — Tom Bob in New York, USA 🇺🇸
Tom Bob refuses to let urban hardware be boring. He transformed a series of clunky gas meters and pipes into a lively trombone player. The way he sees musical instruments in industrial clutter is absolutely unmatched.
More: See more from Tom Bob
🔗 Follow Tom Bob on Instagram ↗
🦆 Silo Platypus — Jimmy Dvate in Rochester, Australia 🇦🇺
Jimmy Dvate specializes in painting Australia’s threatened species on a colossal scale. This platypus wrapping around a massive grain silo is not just visually stunning; it’s a giant, friendly reminder of the local wildlife.
More: See more from Jimmy Dvate
🔗 Follow Jimmy Dvate on Instagram ↗
🧠 Drain Monster — Marles-les-Mines, France 🇫🇷
This storm drain got promoted to creature feature. Big eyes up top, then red tentacles spilling out of the grate like it’s trying to escape the curb. Low effort to spot. High reward.
More: More clever street illusions
🔗 Follow Sandrine Boulet on Instagram ↗
🌳 Legend about Giants — Natalia Rak in Bialystok, Poland 🇵🇱
Natalia Rak created a piece so perfect it looks like a scene from a fairy tale. A massive, brightly painted girl uses a watering can to nourish an actual, physical tree growing on the sidewalk below. The interaction with the real world is flawless.
More: See more from Natalia Rak
🔗 Follow Natalia Rak on Instagram ↗
☀️ Summer Light — Antonino Perrotta in Belsito, Italy 🇮🇹
Antonino Perrotta captures the absolute joy of a warm summer evening with this beautiful mural. A child on a swing is painted perfectly against the stone wall, blending the artwork with the real environment. It is a piece that instantly brings back memories of carefree days.
More: See more from Antonino Perrotta
🔗 Follow Antonino Perrotta on Instagram
🐊 Sidewalk Gator Ride — David Zinn in Michigan, USA 🇺🇸
David Zinn spotted a crack in the pavement and turned it into a little green gator… complete with a tiny rider hanging on for dear life. It’s the kind of blink-and-you-miss-it street magic that makes walking feel like a treasure hunt.
More: See more from David Zinn
Which one is your favorite?
Did the trombone pipes or the unzipped building make you smile the most?
Discover how Vanyu Krastev turns ordinary objects in Bulgaria into laugh-out-loud street art with just a pair of googly eyes!
Vidar (STREET ART UTOPIA)
Made It Funny Again (8 Photos)
Life is better when you have a reason to giggle. These 8 pieces of art show that a little imagination can turn a boring sidewalk into a playground.
Street art does not always need to be deep or serious. Sometimes the best art is the kind that makes you stop and smile. We have collected 8 funny and creative artworks that prove the world is full of surprises if you just look down.
More: Funny Signs (20 Photos)
🦖 1. Mailbox Monster — Damon Belanger in California
Even the mail deserves a spooky shadow. This blue mailbox looks like it is ready to eat your bills with its big jagged teeth. It is a great way to make a trip to the post office a bit more exciting. More: Funny Fake Shadows! (20 Photos)
🔗 Follow Damon Belanger on Instagram
👻 2. Haunted Crosswalk — Oakoak in France
Crossing the street is much more fun with a floating ghost. Oakoak turned these white stripes into a group of worried faces. One stripe has escaped and is floating away. This was made for the festival Les petits bonheurs in Auchel. More: Lovely by Oakoak (10 Photos)
🔗 Follow Oakoak on Instagram
🚌 3. The Best Bus Stop Ever — Takaharu, Japan
These grandparents built a life-size Totoro for their grandkids. It sits right by a bus stop in the mountains. Waiting for the bus has never been this magical. It is the perfect spot for a photo and a hug. More!: Grandparents Build Life-Size Totoro Bus Stop for Their Grandkids in Japan
🏛️ 4. Sidewalk Stonehenge
Why fly to England when you can see Stonehenge on the curb? Someone used loose bricks to build a tiny ancient wonder on a broken sidewalk. It even has a traffic cone for safety. It is a small masterpiece in a messy world.
🤝 5. Joining the Family
This kid found some new friends to play with. He is holding hands with a bronze statue and leaning back. It looks like the metal family is taking him for a walk. Statues are much more fun when you interact with them. More!: Playing With Statues (21 Photos)
🐊 6. Crocodile in the Parking Lot — Tom Bob
Tom Bob turned a boring concrete block into a happy green crocodile. He added legs and a tail on the ground to complete the look. Watch your step when you park your car. This reptile only eats tires. More: 33 Artworks by Creative Genius Tom Bob (That Will Make You Smile)
🔗 Follow Tom Bob on Instagram
👣 7. The Invisible Man
This is the easiest street performance ever. You do not even have to show up. Just bring a pair of flip-flops and a funny sign. People are actually giving him money. He must be very good at staying still.
🐭 8. Due to a lack of opponents, Maude soon found that she had become a collector of snowballs — David Zinn
Maude the mouse is ready for a snowball fight in her little blue coat. Since nobody else showed up to play, she has become a collector instead. This chalk art makes the cold winter feel a lot warmer. More: This Is Amazing Art By David Zinn! (11 Photos)
🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram
More: Can’t Stop Smiling (9 Photos)
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EVHaste
in reply to EVHaste • • •It may be inadvisable to put this in writing, but I’m serious about this: if I am ever required to put up an age-gate, I intend to defy that law.
You’re going to have to break into my house and physically remove the server, when it comes down to it.
And it’s not that I doubt they can. I don’t have the same kind of resources that the state does. It’s more that I intend to make them do so publicly, in the sunlight.
I solemnly swear to be the biggest pain in the ass for fascists possible.
EVHaste
in reply to EVHaste • • •At this point, I believe there’s more value in being loud and public about resistance.
The legal system already does not function, specifically for me. I have no reason to believe that the Constitution will protect me, or that plausible deniability will keep me out of jail. At this point, if the fash wants to put me there, they will reverse engineer a reason to do so, or even do so illegally.
But if others see me making noise, they might decide to push back, too. Corporations certainly aren’t!
EVHaste
in reply to EVHaste • • •All I know is that the internet is absolutely the most important thing humanity has ever created, and is maybe the only tool that we have today which is capable of equalizing the absolutely insane wealth, information, and power inequalities in my country.
Our ability to communicate freely, to exchange ideas, and to organize terrifies all of the right people. Good. It should.
I will not participate in destroying my own home— and yes, I do consider the Internet my home. I’m corny like that.
EVHaste
in reply to EVHaste • • •I understand that my own corner of the internet is not particularly important, but I only have to be one brick in the wall.
And I can even become a *couple* of bricks by extending those principles to the other sites and tools that I use, and refusing to participate in ones that cave to pressure to erode our civil rights.
No one will notice that I’m not using Floop or Glorm or whatever. It’s true that I won’t cause the owners to change their behavior. But neither will I help them build power.
EVHaste
in reply to EVHaste • • •So yeah, bottom line: I will not tolerate this identity verification bullshit on any platform.
I will not allow my absence from said platforms to dictate my ability to participate in public life.
I will build spaces that respect and empower my neighbors.
It’s going to be inconvenient, but it’s also punk as hell, and the right thing to do.
Finally, to the authoritarian pricks trying to destroy my home, online and off; fuck you, I hope you choke.
aliceice reshared this.
Violet Madder
in reply to EVHaste • • •I'm from the Internet, too.
I see them trying to enclose the digital commons, which will have as devastating effect on humanity as enclosing the land did.
The future is being stolen from us, and we have to stop them.
EVHaste
in reply to Violet Madder • • •@violetmadder well, I’m happy to be in community with you then.
Let’s do our best.
su_liam
in reply to Violet Madder • • •Enclosure - Wikipedia
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Violet Madder
in reply to su_liam • • •@su_liam
Exactly.
The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.
(and the "tragedy of the commons" is a heavily propagandized lie)
Cy
in reply to EVHaste • • •Admittedly the absolutely insane wealth, information and power inequalities in the world only skyrocketed once the Internet was created. But is it correlation, causation or coincidence? The Internet enabled Google, Amazon, Facebook, but really those guys were using the same techniques that worked to screw up brick and mortar business in the 1800's. We just had laws to prevent it, and for some reason people started lying that didn't apply when you couldn't walk into the store. And got away with it, every time. Plus wealth monstrosities created by SpaceX, and indeed "brick and mortar" superstores weren't aided by the Internet. And the vast majority of rich fucks these days come from two scams: rental properties (especially hotels) and private equity. Internet doesn't help either of those schemes.
(I'd add speculation to the schemes, but that money doesn't exist; people are just lying that it does.)
So I'd say the Internet is... probably... a good thing. But its timing is terrible, coinciding with the constant, total failure of anyone opposing rich fucks and the unstoppab
... Show more...Admittedly the absolutely insane wealth, information and power inequalities in the world only skyrocketed once the Internet was created. But is it correlation, causation or coincidence? The Internet enabled Google, Amazon, Facebook, but really those guys were using the same techniques that worked to screw up brick and mortar business in the 1800's. We just had laws to prevent it, and for some reason people started lying that didn't apply when you couldn't walk into the store. And got away with it, every time. Plus wealth monstrosities created by SpaceX, and indeed "brick and mortar" superstores weren't aided by the Internet. And the vast majority of rich fucks these days come from two scams: rental properties (especially hotels) and private equity. Internet doesn't help either of those schemes.
(I'd add speculation to the schemes, but that money doesn't exist; people are just lying that it does.)
So I'd say the Internet is... probably... a good thing. But its timing is terrible, coinciding with the constant, total failure of anyone opposing rich fucks and the unstoppable enslavement of every man, woman and child while the planet burns. Sometimes I just wish I could talk to my neighbors, and do something to protect ourselves against this global wave of tyranny.
mike805
in reply to Cy • • •@cy Expensive technologies benefit the rich.
A previous generation of rich people hated the crossbow because a man who could devote himself to training with it could kill an armored rich landowner.
The Samurai really didn't like muskets for the same reason. Now an uppity peasant hiding at a turn in the road could kill them.
All tech since the steam engine has empowered the rich. At least the Internet does occasionally threaten them. Encryption and copying capability, for example.
Cy
in reply to mike805 • • •Hardly any rich people operated a steam engine at all!
Just nitpicking, but technically the reason every technology since the steam engine has benefited only the rich is purely political. As in, it's legal for them to benefit, and not legal for anyone else. That's all that's causing it: people, police, laws. It's that way because people have decided to make and keep it that way.
CC: @Haste@mastodon.social
mike805
in reply to Cy • • •@cy It's also true that steam engines (and power plants are steam engines; this has not changed) have major economies of scale. If you wanted to generate your own electricity you had to hire someone to shovel the coal.
Liberating technologies are those that allow large numbers of ordinary people to defeat small numbers of rich people.
The crossbow, the musket with bayonet, the stirrup for horses, gunpowder for siege warfare.
There haven't been any of those lately.
Cy
in reply to mike805 • • •Steam engines at scale require large numbers of ordinary people to operate. If those large numbers of people give the middle finger to the small numbers of rich people, what are they going to do? Pay with the money that isn't worth anything, since they can't gatekeep access to the machines?
The answer is they get the military to go kill you all, until you submit to slavery. That really is all that it is. The day the large numbers of ordinary people in the military give the rich the middle finger is the day that the rich lose absolutely everything.
CC: @Haste@mastodon.social
PickleGlitch
in reply to EVHaste • • •Sharon McCarthy
in reply to EVHaste • • •Kim Possible
in reply to EVHaste • • •exactly.
I also close my account the second a company uses AI as their customer service.
EVHaste
in reply to Kim Possible • • •@kimlockhartga yeah, get that shit out of here.
Latest run in with it is Overtone. Really liked it but it if I can’t get a human I’m not using it again.
Seth "Twylo" Morabito
in reply to EVHaste • • •Seth "Twylo" Morabito
in reply to EVHaste • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to EVHaste • • •i haven't been on #bluesky in awhile
i just won't do it
i could use a fake date
but i just resent it
reshared this
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES, Mastodon Migration and Dave Rahardja reshared this.
BoloMKXXVIII
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •When you have absolutely no choice but to enter a date, enter July 4th, 1776. Everyone!
EVHaste
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@benroyce wow I hate so many things about the way they’ve phrased that.
1. Age appropriate according to whom? What are you, my mom?
2. Just give us this data real quick, it’ll be so easy. Don’t think about it too much, definitely do it without thinking please. Also we’re holding your account hostage
3. It’s private, trust us.™️
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES reshared this.
Hermey G
in reply to EVHaste • • •@benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Hermey G • • •@Bobblegagger
i get those emails too
....on my fake birthday i've been entering into sites when i have to since forever
Hermey G
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •A new hack for me to explore. I have always wanted to be born in a leap year, hmmmm🤔😅
@Haste
EVHaste
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to EVHaste • • •EVHaste
in reply to Hermey G • • •@Bobblegagger @benroyce Hm. On the bright side, those do seem mostly like services that would know it directly from you as opposed to having bought it from someone.
I’d still prefer not getting the email, but it’s something.
Hermey G
in reply to EVHaste • • •@benroyce
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to Hermey G • • •@Bobblegagger
oh you silly!
*trust us*
😒
EVHaste
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@benroyce @Bobblegagger only as far as I can throw them
(I’m not particularly strong)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to EVHaste • • •@Bobblegagger
EVHaste is quantifying their arm strength: write that down! put it on their data broker profile! 🤭
EVHaste
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •@benroyce @Bobblegagger nooooo two more bits for fingerprinting, what have I done
(A friend taught me that phrase this morning)
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES
in reply to EVHaste • • •i am sure the data scrapers have come for mastodon
AI training, etc
but it's nice to know there's no backdoor connection to our real lives
and i've seen lively discussions on here about how to trap web spiders that ignore robots.txt
Hermey G
in reply to ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIES • • •I can't express how much I miss not needing to be plugged in.
@Haste
Tilda Moose, citizen
in reply to EVHaste • • •Also a flag that it's time to get back to more community and land based work for those who can.
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to EVHaste • • •LAUREN
in reply to EVHaste • • •James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺
in reply to EVHaste • • •EVHaste
in reply to James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺 • • •Nu Modular
in reply to EVHaste • • •Ox1de
in reply to EVHaste • • •This is my plan as well.
I used to be one of those techy people that liked trying new platforms and so created a bunch of accounts (of which are all closed now). But took a page from partner. They would move on from any site that required an account, just wasn't worth it for them.
EVHaste
in reply to Ox1de • • •@Ox1de I got annoyed just yesterday cause labcorp tried to make you make an account to pay your bill now, depending on which button you click.
I’m like, no, if you want your money you’ll give me the old flow and we’ll part ways, thank you.