Fusion Forty Seven. Online since 1999.

  • The Unnormal: Part 3 of x. People look better in masks

    The Unnormal: Part 3 of x. People look better in masks

    The longer this pandemic goes on the more companies I see getting into the designer-mask game. There are some really creative ones out there. Not only do I not mind wearing a mask, I think it is a moral imperative that we wear them for ourselves, but moreover, for others. I read a comment to…

  • The Buildering Files: Historical Climbing Guides to Urban Ascents in Norman, Oklahoma

    The Buildering Files: Historical Climbing Guides to Urban Ascents in Norman, Oklahoma

    Publishing these guides online for posterity. If you are interested in buildering and buildering guides you will appreciate these. The Urban Climber was the first published guide for climbing on the OU campus. It was authored by Bernie Wire and Ramzy Telley. Though there is no copyright date on the version I have, based on…

  • Unearthed: Terry’s garage climbing gym

    Unearthed: Terry’s garage climbing gym

    These days, garage climbing gyms are ubiquitous, if not a bit cliche. Holds on cinderblock walls, sheets of plywood attached to a wood frame, angled wood planks fabricated to create a crack…there are no limits when it comes to fabricating climbing contraptions. Particularly at home where you can get away with making stuff that would…

  • Unearthed: Tour De Pump Climbing Competition – 1995 – Paradise Rock Gym, Denver, CO

    Going through my old 8mm video tapes I located this gem. Another competition video – this one from the 1995 Tour De Pump climbing competition at the Paradise Rock Gym in Denver, Colorado. I haven’t scrubbed the video for names yet but you may recognize a few folks. My brother Adam and I – both…

  • The Unnormal – Part 2 of x. 101 years ago

    The Unnormal – Part 2 of x. 101 years ago

    Ongoing dialogue and reflection in the age of covid-19 In thinking about what is happening in our world today it brings about thoughts of the past. The picture above is of one of my great uncles who fought in WWI and died 101 years ago this month (March 25, 1919) as a result of the…

  • Throwback: To Outdoor Film Shows at the Silos

    Throwback: To Outdoor Film Shows at the Silos

    The Renegade Picture Show was an idea I started in April of 2007. At the same, there were other guerilla-movie projectionist around the world who were doing similar things each in slightly their own way. The idea stemmed from the concept of a drive-up drive-in style movie venue. People could relax in their cars or…

  • The Unnormal: Part 1 of x. Staying Home

    The Unnormal: Part 1 of x. Staying Home

    The difference between right now – March 24 – and the beginning of the month is staggering and evidenced by comparing the world map then and now. If we further consider that in Asia, by 3/3/2020 there were already over 80,000 cases before the pandemic truly took hold of the rest of the world it…

  • More articles, essays and stories

    More articles, essays and stories

    I’ve been going back through my archives of written material and it’s surprising how much stuff I have but haven’t published.  In reopening these files I’m discovering that, in some cases, these pieces are decent enough to put online – or need some more editing, first. In either case, I’m taking the opportunity to add…

  • Heraclitus said it best

    The only thing that is constant is change.  More to come… Related Images:

  • Unearthed: Tour de Pump Climbing Competition 1993 video – Featuring Russell Hooper and other rock stars

    In 1993 I decided to drive (or ride, as it were) to Boulder, Colorado for the Tour De Pump, an annual climbing competition that featured some of the best sport climbers of the day. Here were the superstars of the climbing world, and to a newly minted climber from Norman, Oklahoma, it was like being…