New, noteworthy DVDs, video games, gadgets

SITE QUARTERFORACAR.WORDPRESS.COM

Megan Kennedy isn't looking to pass the buck. A quarter will do just fine, thank you. Before too long, she hopes to turn many of those coins into a much-needed new car. Yes, the 25-year-old woman from Byron, Minn., has a job, but, as she told the Rochester Post-Bulletin last week, she wants "to be known as the girl who bought a car for a quarter." You can send two bits her way through a Paypal link on her Quarter for a Car website. Just keep in mind that Paypal charges her -- yep, you guessed it -- a quarter to process each transaction. "This is especially disheartening when you consider the name of the site ... and all the time I put into the whole 'quarter' theme," the plucky panhandler says. Here's hoping she puts more forethought into choosing a car.

CLIP WWW.HUMANFLIPBOOK.COM

Erbert & Gerbert's is known for sub sandwiches with far-out names, such as the Boney Billy and the Jacob Bluefinger. So it's no surprise to see the same kind of creativity go into "Human Flipbook," a cool video for the Wisconsin-based chain that's making the rounds online. In the 30-second clip, created by Minneapolis agency Colle+McVoy, a man's shirt serves as the canvas for a whimsical animated scene. An intern donned and removed 150 shirts, each with an ironed-on animated still, to pull it off. The clip and a 3-minute making-of video have totaled more than 600,000 views so far on YouTube.

GAME "RATCHET & CLANK FUTURE:

TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION" (SONY, $60 FOR THE PS3)

If the PlayStation 3 ever needed an exclusive title to kick-start sales of the flagging video-game system, this is it. Going on the first PS3 adventure with the catlike Ratchet and his robot sidekick Clank is like playing inside a computer-animated movie: The high-def graphics are out of this world. But they would mean nothing without the series' intuitive controls, wacky weapons and abundant humor, which the game thrives on as our heroes try to thwart "an equal opportunity oppressor" whose "humble quest is intergalactic domination." If you're a PS3 fan, you simply must let "Ratchet & Clank Future" take you for a ride.

RANDY A. SALAS