Fans at Monkey Hill bar celebrate a touchdown by the Saints in the final minutes of Saturday's playoff game against San Francisco. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Jan 142012
Sep 182011
Saints fans go wild at the Boot after a Saints touchdown Sunday afternoon. The Saints defeated the Bears 30-13. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Sep 162011
The Uptown high school’s tradition of roasting the Saints opponents on massive student-made banners usually ensures a grin for Claiborne Avenue drivers during football season, but apparently a thief had other plans for this week’s gag at Chicago’s expense, according to nola.com. Theories in an unusually worthwhile comment section range from disgruntled university students from the area to overzealous Saints fans planning to appropriate the image inside the Superdome.
Sep 082011
The crowd goes wild after watching a touchdown by the Saints at Tracey's in the Irish Channel Thursday night. Hundreds came out to Tracey's to watch the 2011 season opener. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Sep 082011
The Irish Channel and Carrollton-Riverbend neighborhood associations are both pushing their regularly scheduled monthly meetings back a week to accommodate the Saints season opener. Continue reading »
Jan 062011
Rebecca Snook shows a photo on her phone of her and her daughter Melissa Martinez, 17, on Christmas in their Irish Channel home. Martinez perished in a fire two days later. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
With nighttime lows well beneath freezing last February, not too many people thought camping overnight in the St. Charles Avenue neutral ground was a great idea.
Melissa Martinez, at right, camps out on St. Charles Avenue during Mardi Gras. (Submitted photo)
Kara Morgan, president of the Irish Channel Neighborhood Association, thought it was perfect. For Mardi Gras immediately after Saints’ triumphant first-ever Super Bowl victory, quarterback Drew Brees was riding in Bacchus, and Morgan needed to secure a conspicuous place on the route so he would see her life-size photo of him from his float.
But Morgan also needed fellow campers, and when most of her friends her age told her she was crazy, she turned to a dear friend and neighbor’s teenage daughter, Melissa Martinez, who “thought it was the coolest idea ever,” Morgan recalled. Along with Morgan’s niece and another neighbor, Martinez brought her boyfriend, and the five froze through the night together, huddling on top of tarps and around grills and space heaters in a makeshift camp near Seventh Street.
At 3 a.m., Martinez cooked burgers for everyone. At some point, a elderly Corgi wandered up lost, and the girls adopted him until his owner, a doctor who lived nearby, came and found him. By the time of the parade the next day, Martinez was so exhausted that she was home sleeping and missed it altogether.
This cardboard cutout of Drew Brees inspired a St. Charles Avenue campout for Melissa Martinez and Kara Morgan during Mardi Gras 2009. (Submitted photo)
The entire point of that night for Martinez had simply been the experience and the camaraderie, Morgan now recalls, trying to understand how the beloved 17-year-old Irish Channel resident ended up among eight young people killed in a tragic 9th Ward warehouse fire two days after Christmas and labeled an outsider by the city she loved.
“I really just think she was there because she loved the outdoors, loved roughing it, and I really think that would explain a lot of why she would be in the building that night,” Morgan said. “To her, that would be something fun to do.” Continue reading »
Jan 032011
As the Saints make their way through the postseason, we want to know the best places in Uptown New Orleans to cheer them on. Continue reading »
Jan 022011
Saints fans Victoria Draye, Britny Hester, Tim Roling, Trey Hester and Shellie Kee watch the third quarter of the Saints vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game at the Bulldog on Magazine St. Sunday afternoon. The Saints lost 23-13. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Dec 282010
Attendees at Henry's Uptown Bar enjoy red beans and rice during the Saints game Monday night. Henry's first opened in 1900. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Dec 052010
Pat Orlando (left), Ralph Dicosola and Marc Bellony celebrate after a touchdown during the first quarter of the Saints vs. Bengals game at Carrollton Station Sunday afternoon. The Saints won the game 34-30. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Nov 302010
The school gym filled with cheering students during an assembly before school to watch a giant video screen as the Saints quarterback received his “Sportsman of the Year” award, reports Kari Dequine of The Times-Picayune.
Nov 252010
Terry Sybrant and Theresa Zukowski, from Delaware, cheer for the Saints at Cooter Brown's late Thursday afternoon. They were visiting family for Thanksgiving. Both had eaten early in the day and came to Cooter Brown's to watch the game. " We were here for the Super Bowl too, so we feel like we are adopted fans," said Sybrant. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Nov 132010
The fate of the former site of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts remains uncertain after Lusher Charter School has decided not to purchase it.. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Renovating the old New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts school into a third campus has proven too expensive an idea for Lusher Charter School amid the present uncertainty about public school funding, so school officials are restarting their search for a new Uptown location. Continue reading »
Nov 072010
Marigold Pascaul and Charlotte Ordeneaux wear black and gold fleur de lis and feather headbands, while cheering for the Saints at Tracey's on Magazine Street Sunday afternoon. The Saints beat the Panthers 34-3. Sabree Hill/ www.UptownMessenger.com
Nov 012010
Kimberly Bezak, Diane Serpas and Bill Siino leave the Rum House on Magazine St. after Bezak and Siino won a $150 Rum House gift card for best costume Sunday night. The couple dressed as BP oil spill workers. Sabree Hill/ Uptown Messenger
Oct 242010
Rebecca Schattman sits next to Duncan Blake-Finley and throws her arm up in the air in disappointment as she watches the Saints vs. Cleveland Browns game at Madigan's Bar on S Carrollton Ave. Sunday afternoon. Cleveland Browns won 30-17.
Oct 172010
Emma Cate Pegues jumps up in air at the Boot on Broadway Street as the Saints score against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday afternoon. The Saints won 31-6.
Oct 102010
Saints fans take a break from the Magazine Street Blues Festival to watch the beginning of the game against the Arizona Cardinals on TVs set up on Napoleon Street.
The bustle of food vendors, artists, blues musicians and their dancers Sunday at the Magazine Street Blues Festival all came to a sudden halt at 3 p.m. – kickoff time for the Saints – when flat-screen TVs in the middle of Napoleon Avenue took center stage.
Johnny Angel of Carrollton finds a curbside seat for the Saints game against the Cardinals.
Oct 032010
Matt Prejan ( from left), Gretchen Herring, Lindsay McCracken and Tara Mikhail dance with Tank Nasty, a pit bull wearing a Saints jersey, celebrating the Saints victory over the Carolina Panthers 16-14 on Sunday at Rendezvous at 3101 Magazine St. Sunday afternoon.
Sep 212010
Saints fans Daryn DeLuco (left), Ben Lee and Leon Touzet III scream out in excitement as the Saints are victorious over the 49ers 25-22 at the Saint Bar and Lounge on St. Mary St. Monday night. The Saint Bar and Lounge will have various live music and DJ's every night a Saints game is played for the entire season, presented by Defend New Orleans. "I really like music and football together. It really suits the Saints and New Orleans. We have a unique group of football fans here. Football is not just for football fans here. It doesn't matter who you are, everybody is a Saints fan here," said Jac Currie, owner of The Saint Bar and Lounge.