Thursday, December 29, 2005

Initial New Years Thoughts


December 28/29 - and for the first time in a buncha years, I'm composing thoughts and words via a website ... or whatever they call these blog things.

If you're in Southern California, you may remember me as a hard-news reporter, heard on the old KFWB (the "old" KFWB was quite different from the current station, which now is usually a "news" outlet in name only ... plagued by heavy sports programming ... and endless commercials; for that matter, its rival, KNX ... is only slightly better ... but it hardly matters ... the young people don't give much of a damn about news, unless the reports deal with crime, musicians, sports and traffic ... and the older folks can't hear so good anymore, anyway).

The older readers of this may also remember me as LA's most outrageous - and yet, most quoted ! - film, theater and TV critic, during the '70's and '80's. Before that, I was an eastern - local and network (ABC) - news writer/producer - working with such people as the late Peter Jennings and the just-sorta-retired Ted Koppel.

So here I am, joining the blog orgies ... and during these upcoming weeks and months, I'll express thoughts on most everything - ranging from the current state of our military (I served during the Korean War ... reached the high rank of PFC, but won some awards for work as a combat and documentary, Signal Corps cameraman) ... maybe a few of the current movies (despite the mostly-garbage that's exhibited on the large screens these days) ... and the current state of American medicine (my dad was an MD and I hold a degree in biology from CCNY - Class of '51).

So, we'll see how all this goes.

Lemme hear from you.

gary franklin - LA

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Movies 2005

Peter Rainer in the Christian Science Monitor lists his picks for the best films of 2005. The CSM also has a detailed guide to the films that came out this year.

Roger Ebert also shares his 10 best list as does Jim Emerson on the Ebert site.