Author: DOuG pRATt

Special Guest Blogger

This installment of DogRat is brought to you by honorable son Eric.

If the space above is blank, blame YouTube™!

A new trailer for the highly anticipated video game Dairantou Smash Brothers X (known outside of Japan as Super Smash Brothers Brawl) was released this week at the Tokyo Game Show 2006. Like the other games in the series, DSBX is a crossover fighting game starring Nintendo characters, although this installment will include a guest character from the Metal Gear series by Konami, Snake.

The new trailer reveals several new arenas and one new character, Fox. The game is set to be released in early 2007 for the Nintendo Wii.

-Eric

Does Whatever a Spider Can …

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I continue to appreciate the previously-mentioned reprints of classic Spider-Man comic books that are found in some Sunday papers. I hope that Smart Source will continue to distribute them.

Above are a couple of panels I scanned from this week’s installment. They’re good, but far from the best, examples of artist Steve Ditko’s uniquely compelling approach to drawing the human figure in motion.

Barber Cut

There’s so much to appreciate on NPR — Juan Williams being a notable exception. This weekend NPR has a feature on Samuel Barber’s deservedly popular and praised “Adagio for Strings.”

This is quite a switch from last week’s musical pick of Jerry Lee Lewis! The media player below has a recent recording of the Adagio for Strings.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/NOV06/adagio.mp3]

I recall hearing this piece of music for the first time was when I was only 8, after JFK’s assassination. For me it’s expressive of The Human Condition; and not just the sense of loss it evokes, but any profound longing for something good and important in life.

Shake That Kitty!

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Azu.flv 400 294]

Carol came up with the expression “Shake That Kitty,” as seen in the DVD menu for Azumanga Daioh. Great Dick Dale style surf guitar.

I strung together some snippets, including another menu from the DVD. The other scenes are from an episode where a cat costume figures prominently. The cat parade is very nice, don’t you think?

The character that pets the dog is the one shaking the kitty. Her cat bites her every time she tries to pet it, so she’s quite taken with the placid dog.