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Deacon John

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We’ve been trying to catch a legendary Deacon John show for the past decade. The stars were always just slightly misaligned, traffic tosses in a curve ball, or conflicting commitments conspired to keep us from hearing the master at work.

This year, everything just clicked. We caught Deacon John and the Ivories for their performance at the Old U.S. Mint. This special show was in support of The Friends of the Cabildo in the Old U.S. Mint’s 3rd Floor Performance Space, a trippy, intimate 150-seat venue lit up in warm reds, oranges, and yellows. The entire set was recorded for the Louisiana State Museum archives and future museum exhibits.

This performance was a true tour de force of American popular music (their playbook is almost 800 songs strong!). From Duke Ellington to Cab Calloway, Fats Domino to Stevie Wonder, their 1.5 hour set was awesome. The band was tight and mood playful and fun.

We wish you all could have been there with us, but here is a little taste:


2019 Class Applications

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Travel with ESRM this Spring

Applications are open for our upcoming Service Learning in New Orleans Trip.

Our Service Learning in New Orleans trip has just opened this week.  Applications will be accepted until November 15, but getting them in earlier than later is always the best approach.

What do we do?

We travel to Louisiana to help these regions understand their current state of affairs, materially contribute to their restoration and recovery, and better understand these people and places.  See our class blogs for New Orleans and to get a sense of what we do on these trips.  You can also see any of our class lectures or trip videos, here are a few:

Who can apply?

Any undergraduate enrolled at CSUCI can apply.  We have no major restrictions or pre-requisites.  A freshman Sociology major is just as eligible as a senior ESRM major (although we do tend to skew our acceptances towards students nearing graduation).

Given the physical nature of our trips into the field, all participants must have health insurance during the time of our trip, be able to lift 40 lbs., hike for extended periods, and be in good general physical condition.

How much does the trip cost?

Campus pays for ⅔ of our trip costs, you pay for the remainder.  This year that will be $700 for New Orleans.

Do I get academic credit?

Yes.  You will enroll in a 3 unit course; ESRM 492: Service Learning in New Orleans.

Applications

New Orleans Student Application Form

New Orleans Faculty Recommendation Form

Application review will begin on November 15, with students notified of acceptance by Thanksgiving.

360 Image Tests

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Here are a few test embeds with out new 360° camera.  Enjoy and please comment if you have viewing issues, noting how you are trying to view these images.

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Better Estimates?

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Estimating tree heights is an inexact Science when does with the speed we do them. Add in the challenges of often only getting poor views of the canopy from our given vantage points and we are left with some clear error in our estimates of tree heights when the trees in question are more than 3 or 4m tall.

Drones to the Rescue?

It was with this concern in mind that we ran a trial for one day this trip. We independently visually estimated tree heights, then flew up one of our drones into the air adjacent to the tree in question.We will have a more detailed post later, but our first pass is looking interesting.

No Consistent Bias

So far it looks like we don’t over- or under-estimate trees consistently. Rather the shape of the particular tree and/or the surrounding canopy are much more confounding issues when one seeks to estimate the height of a given tree top.

Capstone 2018

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We are back for our third (fourth?) year lending hands to Capstone’s efforts to bolster healthy, secure food systems across the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

Every year things continue to expand and deepen. From the aquaculture tanks and hydro-grow beds we helped install in years past to the expanding menagerie of fertilizer-producing domestic mammals and bird, everything here is quite literally growing.

Work Crews

When we get to Capstone, our mantra is always the same: tell us what you, we are here to work hard. This year students went to work cleaning out animals pens, mowing grass, and planting crops at several of Capstone’s lots across the Lower 9th Ward.

Mapping

In addition to our regular work, we offered to help David create an array of maps documenting the 15 parcels Capstone currently owns and/or farms. David has a DJI Spark which has proved useful in pre-storm roof monitoring, etc. but is not quite enough to get up in the air in some of the gusty winds we have here. Additionally, he lacks any structure from motion or other photostitching software to stitch together a collage of images. Turns out we are (of course) the perfect fit for such coastal mapping needs. We spent the afternoon flying their various garden plots. Once we get home we will toss these images into our Pix4D mapping computer and out will pop some high resolution maps of Capstone’s existing facilities as of March 23, 2018.

NOSC

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Another year, another great class with the indomitable Chef Michael Devedts!

Parkway

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Great lunch today of Po’ Boys at the epic Parkway Bakery & Tavern in the Bayou St. John/City Park neighborhood.

We had a nice variety of fried pickles, all manner of po’ boys, and a desert of fantastic bread pudding (thanks to our new friend Mark Herman).