A Video by Women for the World - by Mark Schulze

Image by cleopatra69 via Flickr

A volcanic plume of oil has been exploding into the Gulf of Mexico since April, unabated. This environmental disaster is the largest in my lifetime, and in the lifetime of all of humanity. In the course of such tragedy, we ask ourselves, "What can I do? I am only one person."

My partner, Patty Mooney, collaborated with a musician who lives in Florida, named Katherine Archer, to create a music video called "Black Black Blood." Katherine contacted Patty when she came upon Patty's blog, "A Diary Left Open," via a blog post called "BP is Blocking Photos of Dead Wildlife." In her Facebook message to Patty, Katherine said,

I somehow ran across ur blog while trying to find the REAL news, the pics etc. of dying wildlife. I live in Florida. I can tell you, I am not just upset and depressed over this, I'm scared. I'm a huge manatee and wildlife advocate. I am weary from lack of sleep, as many of my friends are--it's looming out there, heavy on our hearts and minds. To keep myself from completely losing it, I wrote a song about it and am pulling pics for a slideshow to go with it. It's getting wrapped up in the studio this week. I'd like to send you a copy when it's done. It's called Black Blood. I want to connect with anyone and everyone who can help get this song out there, who can use the song, who can help get the message out that our beloved gulf is dying. We need help. I want to connect with a non for profit, make the song downloadable on itunes, raise some money, consciousness, tempers--raise the roof. I want the real footage to get out there. There has to be a way. BP has no right. How dare they. How dare our government allow it.

Patty immediately responded by calling Katherine on the phone. The rest, as you could say, is "herstory." Patty edited Katherine's song into a music video that is now on Youtube, Vimeo and MySpace, getting air play and driving the point home to people that we all need to sit up and take notice of what is going on in our backyard. The planet's backyard.

Here's "Black Black Blood:"

Helmet Cam, Before and After - by Mark Schulze

As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, I am the inventor of the helmet cam. Back in 1987, I rigged an old motorcycle helmet with a camera and hooked it into a 3/4" deck (those who are younger than 30 years old will probably not know what I am talking about) and took this completely top-heavy rig down a few mountains, including the Mammoth Mountain Kamikaze in 1988.

Thought it might interest you to see that helmet cam piece and compare it to a recent mountain bike downhill run through a Southern California ride, about a month ago, using GoPro's helmet camera technology.

I wish this sort of lightweight and high resolution technology had been available back in the "olden times" but I am happy that I was involved, in my own small way, in forwarding Point-of-View footage gathering by way of helmet cam.

Here's the 1987 helmet cam clip:

Mammoth Mountain Kamikaze Downhill, 1988 from Patty Mooney on Vimeo.

And here is the clip from 2010:

Helmet Cam with Olympian Great, John Howard from Patty Mooney on Vimeo.

Father of the Helmet Cam - by Mark Schulze

Image via Wikipedia

When I first modified an old motorcycle helmet into a POV camera device back in 1987, I had no clue where such technology would steer. I just did it because I wanted some good footage from a mountain-bike rider's point of view so that my movie, "The Great Mountain Biking Video" would be more interesting to the viewer.

Now I'm in Wikipedia, and featured in this month's Mountain Bike Tales (thanks to my wife, Patty Mooney).

Don't worry, I am not going to get a big head about this, so to speak. I'm happy that technology has reached the point where video cameras now weigh ounces versus pounds, and they now have far greater resolution than ever before. Also, I won't break my neck attempting bike stunts with a camera on my head.

GoPro, a company that manufactures these lightweight cameras for use in sports, in the sky and under water, would like to team up with me as I gather footage in the new century. I will keep you updated on our progress.