By Steve Ballas

The window flag demand in Southern California has got to be at an all time low.  Both basketball teams took an early exit from the post season, the baseball teams think spring training just started, the Ducks are out, the Chargers are going nowhere fast, and still we have no football team in Los Angeles.  Wait, didn’t the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings just beat the Blues and advance to next round of the playoffs?

Do the Kings really make up for all of the other sporting negativity surrounding the City of Angels?

It was pretty amazing watching the Kings breeze their way to Stanley Cup last year and being a part of that parade downtown was really special.  As great as last year was, I am afraid there are still people in this town that aren't even sure if L.A. still has a hockey team.  That scares me.  This town may not have been a hockey town 5 years ago, but it sure as hell is now.  I am no hockey expert, but I am pretty sure crappy teams don't win the Stanley Cup.  The hockey culture in this town needs to change, and it starts with the fans.

The Lakers have a lot of questions to answer this off-season and the Clippers have issues of their own.  As of today, neither of them have the pieces in place to win a championship next year.  Now, that may change in a month, but Kobe's ankle needs to heal, Dwight needs to get signed, and the Clippers need a genie in a lamp to grant them three wishes.  The Spurs, Pacers, Thunder, and especially the Heat are showing no signs of slowing down and they are leaving the L.A. teams in their dust.  As for the local baseball teams, I will give them a pass for the time being, but only because it is mid-May.

The time is now to fully embrace the Kings and the band wagon has plenty of room.  The boys in silver and black are back and I am not talking about the Raiders.  Game two of the western conference semi finals are tonight at Staples Center at 7:00P and the Kings lead the series 1-0.  If you haven't been downtown lately, head down there tonight and show some support.  If you can't make it, then watch the game on TV.  Question is can anyone tell me what channel it's on? 

By John Ramos

Okay, okay. We've all read the book, right?  I think it was part of most High School curriculums. What am I talking about... The Great Gatsby. The book was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was and is one of the most famous English language books ever written according to many and now for the 2^nd time in the last 40 years it has been made into a big screen movie.

The Great Gatsby (PG-13) opening Friday May 10^th, tells the story of J. Gatsby and his friend Nick Carraway, who tells us Gatsby’s story. Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is the cousin of Daisy (Carey Mulligan) who is married to Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) who finds out that he lives next door to the elusive Gatsby. Nick strikes up a relationship with Gatsby and later goes to one of his big time parities and gets to see what the talk around town is all about.

Gatsby’s parties are crazy and a bash that brings the roaring twenties right in front of your face. Gatsby and Carraway’s relationship grows and Gatsby feels the need to entrust his life story to Carraway including his upbringing and why he is one of the richest people in the area. We also find out that Gatsby also wants to re-ignite a relationship with Daisy whom he had fallen in love with many years earlier, in fact it’s the reason why he is so close to Daisy, living across the bay from her, enough to see her house from his.

Daisy’s life isn’t going that great, her husband Tom is engaged in many affairs but the old money is there and she’s just going through the movements. With Nick’s help Gatsby and Daisy find their love again and Gatsby thinks it’s time for Daisy to leave Tom and run away with him. What follows is some ups and downs for everyone and well I don’t want to spoil it.

The Great Gatsby is an interesting movie, it’s directed by Baz Luhrmann, who directed Leonardo DiCaprio back in 1996’s Romeo & Juliet, and brings that same feel to this movie as that one. A very fast paced, quick cut movie, Gatsby looks to make the 1920’s hip and now, which includes the music of Jay-Z.

Trust me, it’s not the Gatsby of your Grandfather. Tobey Maguire brings a steady hand to the Nick Carraway figure who tell us the story through his writing of the adventure he had but never seems like he fits.  Joel Edgerton brings the womanizer Tom Buchannan to life, a character who gets what he wants whenever he wants it, the quintessential playboy, I enjoyed his portrayal.  Carey Mulligan who plays Daisy does a nice job but I never bought into her, the fact that she was someone Gatsby would drop his whole life over just didn’t win me over.

Now the real reason you do need to see The Great Gatsby is for DiCaprio, this guy is a star, if you didn’t know this already. The minute he walks on the screen the movie explodes. His charisma and persona takes you away and you definitely feel like he is larger than life and Gatsby incarnate.  He really carries this movie and adds the interest you need to care about everyone else and why they're there.

Look, The Great Gatsby is not the greatest movie but it’s a nice movie that you can get involved with and defiantly take your girlfriend, wife or significant other.  At more than 2 hours, the movie does have its slow points but for the most part moves very well.

Director Luhrmann does a nice job of giving you the ambience of the 1920’s and relating it to today’s movie goer. I liked Gatsby but I didn’t love it, but I do think it’s worth a try.

One of the bigger debates in sports always centers around which team has the best fan base. Criteria such as loudest arena, general passion and amount of tickets sold. Well one poll didnt take ONE of these factors into account when they determined that the Miami Heat had the best an base in the NBA. Naturally, I took issue with their conclusion in the video below:

By Josh Saylor

This is going to be an interesting offseason for the Lakers. They have a lot of unanswered questions heading into the offseason.

Here are the three biggest questions facing the Lakers this offseason...

1. Steve Nash

Lets face it Lakers fans, Steve Nash looked old and brittle this season. He just wasn’t the same player we saw in Phoenix the last few years. He is, after all, 39 years old. Even superstars can only defy getting old for so long. It will be interesting to see what the Lakers do about their point guard situation this offseason. Only time will tell, but just to add a little twist here, Chris Paul will be a free agent this offseason. Maybe the Lakers can still get what they wanted after all?

2. Kobe Bryant

Yes, there is no doubt Kobe Bryant is the heart and soul of the Lakers, even at 34 years old. However, he is also making 30 million dollars next season season. If the Lakers want the ability to make more moves, and to bring in better players, Kobe Bryant will take a pay cut. I mean the best player in the NBA, LeBron James, only makes 18 million dollars this season. Why? Because winning is more important than making as much money as possible. We will see this offseason what is more important to Kobe... winning or getting paid. Also, under the new collective bargaining agreement, a player making 30 million a season just doesn’t work anymore.

3. Dwight Howard

Let the drama begin. Will Dwight Howard be back in a Lakers uniform next season? For those Lakers fans saying he should remain loyal to the Lakers... You're forgetting, this a business, and this is Dwight Howard. The guy hasn’t been able to make up his mind about anything since his final year in Orlando. He finally has what he wanted all along. The chance to choose where he wants to play. He didn’t show up for the Lakers in the playoffs this season, and even got himself ejected in the final game against the Spurs, leading to an apparent little feud with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak. It will be interesting to see if any of that has an effect on whether Dwight chooses to stay with the Lakers this offseason.

By John Ramos

It must be the start of the summer blockbusters because here comes the first, Iron Man 3. Opening Friday May 3^rd,, Iron Man 3 follows the continuing adventures of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and his fight against evil, while trying to balance his love life with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Iron Man, coming off a great adventure in the Avengers film, which I loved, finds himself in a bit of a dilemma. He is having super anxiety because of some of the events from The Avengers while trying to cope with a new villain, The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Tony works hard to try and cope with this new found anxiety, which is nice because it brings some regular person feel to his character, even the great Tony Stark has flaws.

He setout to try and stop a terrorist of very large proportions called the Mandarin. He also gets involved with another manipulator named Aldirich Killian played by Guy Pierce who also has his eye set on Tony for reasons you can find out when you go see this movie, but let’s say he’s not happy with good ole Tony Stark.

The similarities of the fight against terror that our country is currently going through and the fight to stop the mythical Mandarin are sometimes too close to home. Iron Man and his friend War Machine/Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) have to team together to find out what is going on and why certain events are not initially making sense.  In this chapter of the Iron Man franchise Tony Stark/Iron Man has to fight many inner demons as well as go back to the basics to get his point across including befriending a young boy who gives him added inspiration and help for that matter.

Iron Man 3 follows the same theory as many other of the Marvel super hero movies, to save the day but it does it in a fun way. Robert Downey Jr. is again wonderful as Iron Man. I found myself asking for as much screen time from him as they could possibly give. Gwyneth Paltrow is always good, and something about her is very engaging plus I think Ben Kingsley steals the show as the arch villain. This movie has its great share of special effects and storyline, though I do wish that there would have been a little bit more of the Iron Man kickin' butt but we do get a chance to evolve the characters through more of a storyline than explosions.

The film is not amazing but its definitely worth the price of admission and it's a film that everyone can enjoy, It's just fun. It's not without some flaws, but not enough to keep me or you away.

The fact that Tony Stark is vulnerable in this movie is refreshing and shows that you don’t have to be Iron Man to be a superhero. It takes us for a ride, I just wish there were more rides, but there is enough to do its Iron Man duty.

Go see Iron Man 3 and have a great time... I did.