Category: New Orleans

Who Dat?

Payton

I can’t fault Sean Payton for taking those knees, killing the clock, and having Carney kick the field goal to win. But I couldn’t get memories of John Carney in the Jacksonville game out of my head. What a way to finish the game.

The last Saints possession was an 8 minute drive. Want to beat the Eagles? Easy. Just don’t give their offense the ball and eat up the clock. That’s Dave’s strategy in Madden. Of course, it never really works for Dave because he doesn’t have the talent to sustain the drive.

Ron Jaworski picked the Saints as his number 4 team in football on SportsCenter, right below only the Bears, Chargers, and Colts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the media treat the Saints like that. The talking heads are actually talking about the way the Saints are playing, rather than their “emotional performance.”  Are we not a novelty anymore?  Are we legitimate?
I almost wish we didn’t have a bye next week. Bring on the Ravens. Let’s get another win over one of the “good” teams. Oh wait, Kyle Boller is QB in Baltimore again. I bet they aren’t considered good anymore.

23-3 Saints Win!! Saints Win!!

Saints entrance

Wow. What a game that was. It was great to be there in the Superdome for the greatest Saints game since “Hakim dropped it! Hakim dropped the ball!” I’ve never seen lines like that at the Dome before. So many people.

For some reason, they didn’t close off the streets around the Dome. Poydras was shut down anyway, just by the masses of people. As my mom and I walked down the street, we watched a cop futilely trying to get people out of the street, saying “THE STREET ISN’T CLOSED PEOPLE. THE STREET ISN’T CLOSED.” The people standing shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the street watching Cowboy Mouth play on a stage on the corner said differently. There was no where else to go. Poydras was closed.

Continue reading 23-3 Saints Win!! Saints Win!!

The Sacredome

I like to read the New Orleans bloggers for my info, rather than the Times-Picayune or nola.com. They are certainly more passionate about the city, and have done an excellent job of documenting the experiences of the people in the city on the ground now, from their own point-of-view.

Right now of course, the the topic du jour is the Saints and the upcoming Monday Night Football game against the Falcons, which I am so proud to say I will be in attendance. My Dalton Hillard jersey is ready.

Oyster, from Your Right Hand Thief, put up a great post on the Superdome (or the Sacredome as he calls it) yesterday. He dispells some of the stories that I’m sure we will hear this weekend about the things that went on in the Dome during the storm, stories which gave the rest of the country reason to ignore the city:

New Orleanians are not “savages” nor “Somalians”. When everything breaks down we do not rape children and go on mass killing sprees like the media reported; we are not “animalistic” like our mayor said, we do not form “thug armies” in desperate circumstances, we are not anarchists…. But, after Katrina, America was ready to believe the worst about us, as if most New Orleanians were depraved criminals at heart.

The country needs to understand that this is NEW ORLEANS, and that neither hurricane nor flood nor FEMA can stop us from dancing.

This Monday will be a fascinating experience, I’m sure. The fact that the people of the Gulf Coast managed to buy every single season ticket for the first time ever is amazing. Sure, there are more important things to think about than football going on in New Orleans, but the Saints really have given the country another opportunity to look at New Orleans, this time in a positive light.

Hopefully. As long as the media gets the facts straight. Forgive me if I don’t have too much faith that they will, given their track record. Sorry Dave, I know you’re part of the media. How about giving this MNF game an editorial in your AJC blog?

A Loud Color and Holdout

Brent Joseph has released his documentary A Loud Color online. Here’s the summary:

As New Orleans rebuilds, many people are trying to resolve the city’s history of crime and violence. Louis Harding was working on this problem long before the levees broke. Louis spent years trying to open a community center, The Marcus Garvey Resource Center. In 2005, he was finally able to offer his first summer program, then Hurricane Katrina struck and the center was destroyed. Despite the setback, 72-year-old Harding refuses to give up on his mission to combat poverty in New Orleans. While sorting through the debris of his life, Louis discusses the importance of history, heroes, and self-esteem in the black community. He explains how life for African-Americans in New Orleans has changed in the last 50 years and why bringing his dream to life is more important than ever before.

Check it out. Buy the DVD series from NOVAC. It’s only $8.
He also released some information about his upcoming film Holdout, about his Mid-City neighbor who refused
to leave New Orleans before or after the Katrina in order to take care of his 18 pets.

Brent and I went to high school together. He is one of my oldest and dearest friends.