Just a Bunch of Time-Wasting Links

A couple interesting links I came across today.

1.) I like David Caruso. For some reason after he left "NYPD Blue" to star in a bunch of flops and essentially killed his career, I felt bad for him because I thought he was kind of an exciting actor, or at least he could be, and he'd made some bad decisions. Happens to the best of us. So when he rocketed back to fame by being cast in the lead in the first "CSI" spin-off, I was glad for him. This compilation of clips from his show, "CSI: Miami", however, makes me believe that he may have traded in any edge he might have once had as an actor, and has become instead more of a "presence", a kind of "gruff cop" archetype viewers can depend on seeing every week. His slide into a hammy cariacture of himself is actually pretty funny. He's laughing all the way to the bank. You can watch it here. (I have to say the writing has to bear some of the blame for this.)

2.) If you like fun ways to waste your life away, check out Linerider.com. You draw a line, press play, and a little man on a sled rides that line wherever it goes. Good times. Also some fun movies that some users, possessed of a bit of ingenuity and a whole lot o'time, made using the program. The movies made using this program was one of a bunch Slate spotlighted in its feature on so-called "Machinima", or movies made using video games. You can check that out here.

3.) "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" opened with "Daily Show" style ratings on Sunday, so says Variety. Tom Shales's review of the show in the Washington Post is quoted in the article. He said the show "isn't terrible." So far, all evidence to the contrary, Tom. In case you doubt, here's another clip from the show. It's a riff on global warming alarmists and it's just as funny as it sounds. The thing that the "1/2 News Whatever" doesn't seem to get is that although "The Daily Show" does have a left-leaning bent, they don't not go after the Democrats or the excesses of the left. More often, it seems, Stewart and his crew go after TV news in a very scathing and effective way. But the "jokes" on Surnow's new show are aimed exclusively at "left" targets (just as the rest of the network does), so even if there were some moments of humor on the show (none in evidence so far as I can tell), they fall flat because it's a show that, openly, avowedly, has an agenda to push, in this case to "correct" the imbalance the "Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" created. I'm doubtful this show can work on any level. (Also: Heath, you'll love the dig on the ACLU at the end of the clip.)

All right. More tomorrow.