Category: Awesome Pictures

• Behold! My COVID-19 Haircut and Shave

  I have shared this in a few places already, but as I am reviving this blog in large part as a COVID-19 self-isolation project, I figure I should preserve this for posterity. As long as I am posting it, I should add that beard was the first one of my life. I started growing it…

  Geoff Micks

  April 8, 2020

• Remembrance Day, 2010

  Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. It’s the first Remembrance Day of my life that I will not be celebrating with my grandfather, Murray Anderson, a veteran of the Second World War who passed away last winter. In December, 2009, I scanned a number of pictures he took during his time in the Royal Canadian Navy with…

  Geoff Micks

  November 10, 2010

• Awesome Pictures: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

  What is it: This is ‘Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire’, also known as ‘Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto’ painted by Ilya Repin between 1880 and 1891. Why is it Awesome? Well, to start, look at it! This painting is roughly two meters high and three…

  Geoff Micks

  May 30, 2010

• My Grandmother, Serena Anderson

  I mentioned last month that I’ve scanned in a number of pictures from my grandparents’ old photo albums. Everything I’ve put up thus far has been from my grandfather’s youth, and so I thought I’d mix things up a little bit by putting up some information on my grandmother. A great deal of the following…

  Geoff Micks

  January 18, 2010

• A Car Story from the Early 1920s

  This is another photo from the collection I scanned up at my grandparents’ place two weekends ago. My grandfather thinks this photo was taken before he was born, which would date it prior to 1924. There is a small possibility that he’s the little boy second from the left whose face is in shadow, which…

  Geoff Micks

  December 3, 2009

• Awesome Pictures: Assyrian Lion Hunting

  What is it: This is a bas relief panel carved in limestone from an enormous frieze depicting the royal lion hunts of Assyria, built for the North Palace of Nineveh, circa 645-635 BC. It is now on display at the British Museum in London in a massive hall that will take your breath away. Why…

  Geoff Micks

  December 1, 2009

• Crest Advertising Campaign: You Can Say Anything With A Smile

  Call me a willing consumer in a key demographic of a capitalist society, but I love a good ad campaign. Crest is already my toothpaste brand, but if it wasn’t, this campaign would make me change my mind. Hell, I almost –almost– took up drinking Canadian just to support the fantastic I Am Canadian campaign.…

  Geoff Micks

  November 30, 2009

• Best of the Web: Old Picture of the Day

  I came across this blog yesterday, and I’ve already decided I’m going to check it every day from now on. The site is run by a man from Christoval, Texas; every day he puts up an interesting old photo, with a brief explanation of what it’s all about. It seems he often does weekly themes…

  Geoff Micks

  November 30, 2009

• Awesome Pictures: The Great Depression Era’s Concept of Gun Safety

  What is it: This is my grandfather, Murray Anderson, in 1942 at age 17, pointing his gun directly at the photographer. Why is it Awesome? Okay, let’s get a closer look at this. You tell me, what’s interesting about this image? Is it the bit where you can see directly down the barrel of what…

  Geoff Micks

  November 29, 2009

• The Log Driver’s Waltz

  For most Canadians of my generation, this needs no introduction. For the rest of you, get ready for a real treat! When I was five or six I used to watch this every morning between cartoons. “The Log Driver’s Waltz” is a Canadian folk song written by Wade Hemsworth. The most famous version of the…

  Geoff Micks

  November 23, 2009