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Always interested in radios and sound equipment (he got his ham radio license at the age of 13), Wester ended up as a sound engineer for TV and movies. "If the sound equipment didn't exist to do the job," said his friend Paul Petersen, "Keith would invent it." One such case was his work on The Perfect Storm: Wester had to record dialogue on a flooded sound stage buffeted by 100-mph winds generated by huge fans. "It required that the microphone be able to record decent dialogue, first of all, and second, not be hurt when it was submerged, and third, pressed into use again for the next take," Wester said later. For the job, he combined a microphone, PVC tubing, foam and a condom, all held together with glue. "It worked like a charm. I think I'm going to send that one to the Smithsonian." Indeed the device worked so well he was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the film. He also received Oscar nominations for his work on Black Rain (1996), Waterworld (1997), The Rock (1998), Armageddon (1998) and Air Force One (1999), and won an Emmy for his work on An Early Frost (1986). He died November 1 at his California home from cancer. He was 62. From This is True for 3 November 2002 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Jude BiersdorferDavid Pogue List Price: $19.99 Amazon Price: $13.59 Editorial Review: Product Description With iPod touch, Apple's sleek little entertainment center has entered a whole new realm, and the ultimate iPod book is ready to take you on a complete guided tour. As breathtaking and satisfying as its subject, iPod: The Missing Manual gives you a no-nonsense view of everything in the "sixth generation" iPod line. Learn what you can do with iPod Touch and its multi-touch interface, 3.5-inch widescreen display and Wi-Fi browsing capabilities. Get to know the redesigned iPod Nano with its larger display and video storage capacity. It's all right here. The 6th edition sports easy-to-follow color graphics, crystal-clear explanations, and guidance on the most useful things your iPod can do. Topics include: Out of the box and into your ears. Learn how to install iTunes, load music on your iPod, and get rid of that dang flashing "Do not disconnect" message. Bopping around the iPod. Whether you've got a tiny Shuffle, a Nano, the Classic, or the new Touch, you'll learn everything from turning your iPod off and on to charging your iPod without a computer. Special coverage for iPod owners with trickster friends: How to reset the iPod's menus to English if they've been changed to, say, Korean. In tune with iTunes. iTunes can do far more than your father's jukebox. Learn how to pick and choose which parts of your iTunes library loads onto your iPod, how to move your sacred iTunes Folder to a bigger hard drive, and how to add album covers to your growing collection. The power of the 'Pod. Download movies and TV shows, play photo slideshows, find cool podcasts, and more: this book shows you how to unleash all your iPod's power. iPod is simply the best music player available, and this is the manualthat should have come with it. Amazon Exclusive: VIP Tips and Tricks for iPod Users iTunes Store Tip: Future Shopping Many people use Amazon's Wish List feature for tagging items they want to remember to buy at a later date--and you can do the same thing with music and videos for sale in the iTunes Store. To get started, make a new playlist in iTunes by pressing Control-N on Windows or Command-N on a Mac. Name the new playlist "Wish List" or something memorable like "My Next Paycheck." If you want to keep it extra handy (and on top of all your other playlists), add an "@" symbol to the beginning of the name so the wish list stays on top of the alphabetical pile of playlists in your iTunes window. When you browse the Store later and find a song or video you want to eventually buy, drag its 30-second preview snippet right out of the iTunes Store window and onto the new wish-list playlist you made. Those 30-second snippets will hang out there as a reminder that you want to buy the song or video; if you change your mind, select the track and hit the Delete key to remove it. But if you do want to follow through and make the purchase, you just have to click that big BUY SONG or BUY EPISODE button next to the title to get transported back into the Store to seal the deal. iPod Audio Book Tip: Adjusting the Speed of the Read The iPod is great for listening to audio books, and both Audible.com and the iTunes Store offer thousands of them for sale. But if you find a particular book's narrator is talking too slow or too fast for your personal liking, you can adjust the pace of the reading. Just go to the Settings menu on the main iPod menu screen and select Audiobooks. On the next screen, you can opt to make the playback speed slower or faster than normal. And you can do this without affecting the pitch of the voice and making it sound either like the book is being read underwater or recited by a chipmunk. If you want to adjust the playback speed while you're listening to the audio book file itself, press the iPod's center button a few times. On most models, the audio book speed controls will appear on screen after a few taps and you can change your reading speed on the fly. iTunes Tip: Grooving Out with the Visualizer If you've been working hard all day and want to take a little music break at your desk, give your eyeballs and treat and let your mind wander with the iTunes Visualizer. This swirling laser-light show is built right into iTunes itself and you can turn it on by going to the View menu and choosing "Turn On Visualizer" (or by pressing Control-T in Windows or Command-T on a Mac keyboard). With the Visualizer turned on, choreographed bursts of color accompany your music as it plays. If you want to adjust the size of the Visualizer window — or even make it take over your full computer screen — pop into the iTunes preferences box by pressing Control-comma (Windows) or Command-comma (Mac). In the Preferences box, click the Advanced tab and choose the size of your visuals from the options at the bottom of the box, then click OK. And if you want to get even deeper into the Visualizer, press the question mark keys on the computer keyboard next time you're chilling out to the light show. A hidden menu of other Visualizer configurations and commands appears on screen for you to play with.  By: Christine Ricci List Price: $5.99 Amazon Price: $5.99 Editorial Review: Shh...It's almost bedtime, and Dora and Boots are heading home. Along the way they hear some animal sounds. Who's making them? Readers can lift the flaps to find out -- and learn to say good night, just like Dora.  By: Harry Box List Price: $52.95 Amazon Price: $36.54 Editorial Review: Comprehensive. Detailed. Practical. Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, Third Edition is a friendly, hands-on manual covering the day-to-day practices, equipment, and tricks of the trade essential to anyone doing motion picture lighting. This handbook offers a wealth of practical technical information, useful techniques, as well as aesthetic discussions. The Set Lighting Technician's Handbook focuses on what is important when working on-set: trouble-shooting, teamwork, set protocol, and safety. It describes tricks and techniques for operating a vast array of lighting equipment including xenons, camera synchronous strobes, black lights, underwater units, lighting effects units, and many others. Since its first edition, this handy on-set reference continues to be widely adopted as a training and reference manual by union training programs as well as top university film production programs. New in the third edition is an expanded resource section, new illustrations and tables, and coverage of new lighting products and techniques for how to use them. Expanded resources section: websites, unions, chat groups, bulletin boards, etc, plus new illustrations and tables More advanced, concise, and comprehensive than ever Coverage of new lighting products and techniques to help you use them  List Price: $15.95 Amazon Price: $5.49 Editorial Review: Winslow and Smooch can't find their friend Wartz, so Snook leads his friends on a discovery. This book includes sound buttons to enhance the storytelling.  By: Ray Bradbury List Price: $13.95 Amazon Price: $11.16 Editorial Review: With his disarmingly simple style and complex imagination, Ray Bradbury has seized the minds of American readers for decades.This collection showcases thirty-two of Bradbury's most famous tales in which he lays bare the depths of the human soul. The thrilling title story, A Sound of Thunder, tells of a hunter sent on safari -- sixty million years in the past. But all it takes is one wrong step in the prehistoric jungle to stamp out the life of a delicate and harmless butterfly -- and possibly something else much closer to home ... |
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