Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: Whatever happened to the "Parrot Lady" in Waimanalo? ‘Parrot Lady’ flying
off to mainlandAnswer: She is moving soon to Oregon to be near her children and is looking forward to her involvement in a long-distance phone business, and another one dealing with environmentally sound products.
The Star-Bulletin featured Pualani Burzell and her bird "ranch" in Waimanalo in November 1995. Back then, Burzell had about 350 birds. Officially, she was in the business of breeding parrots, but unofficially, her main goal was to save endangered species and to educate people on how to care and train the birds.
However, the next year, she began phasing out her bird business, eventually franchising out about 400 parrots to four different farms - two in Texas and two on Oahu.
"We took deep losses," Burzell said, but the main thing was that the birds were put in safe places.
Q: I see Consolidated, Signature and Wallace theaters advertising the following sound systems: SDDS, Dolby DTS, Dolby SR and DTS Digital, but there is no place where information is available as to what they represent. One movie will show SDDS in one screening, or DTS in another or Dolby SR or Dolby Digital in another. What are the differences?
A: The Star-Bulletin's resident "Wat Dat?" guy, Burl Burlingame, tackled that question a couple of years ago, when "Independence Day" was released. A Consolidated Theatres spokeswoman told him that different theaters are wired differently and distributors ship film prints in a variety of different sound formats.
Burlingame explained that SR-D Digital is Dolby's trademark, SDDS Digital is Sony's trademark and DTS Digital is Universal's trademarked house system.
We checked the Internet and found a Film Sound Glossary and The BigScreen Cinema Guide, which further explained the systems (in detail, which we don't have the space to get into here):
DTS - Digital Theater Systems, capable of reproducing six distinct channels of sound.
Dolby SR (spectral recording) - The most powerful analog Dolby system, used for the analog soundtracks on all Dolby Digital prints and on many analog-only releases.
Dolby SR-D - Also capable of reproducing six distinct sound channels, it identifies 35 mm release prints containing both an analog Dolby Stereo SR and Dolby Digital optical soundtracks.
Dolby Digital - Multichannel digital format used in cinemas and in consumer delivery systems such as home theater (including laser discs) HDTV and DVD.
SDDS - Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, capable of reproducing sound in two configurations, one with eight distinct sound channels, the other with six.
"Typically, when a movie is shown in a digital sound format, the quality of the theater's equipment is a little higher," according to The BigScreen Cinema Guide. "You can compare the difference between analog and digital sound to the difference between typical LPs and CDs."
Star-Bulletin webmasters recommend the University of San Diego Motion Picture Sound page for more information at http://ac.acusd.edu/History/recording/motionpicture.html.
AUWE
To the young male driver of a black Honda Civic who was speeding and hit my Ford Escort at 11:50 p.m. March 19 when it was parked in a driveway at Lelewalo Street. You just drove away. I hope one day someone does to you what you did to me. I am disabled and don't work and can't pay for the repairs. -- No name
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
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