Word: boom
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...imperious impresario. "When I work on a show," he says, "I'm a wasp. You know how a wasp buzzes around and keeps you on your toes and worries about everything. There's a sound in the air that keeps everything moving." At times the buzz becomes a sonic boom. "Jerry was still rehearsing during previews," says Victor Castelli, a City Ballet soloist who is assisting Robbins. "The kids are exhausted because they are not used to it, and Jerry will be frustrated and annoyed and will yell and scream." But those who have survived Robbins' basic training testify...
Even when Hector Tabarez, 25, keeps the windows rolled up as he drives his 1985 chocolate brown Nissan pickup, his reputation precedes him. Anyone within a several-block radius can hear Tabarez coming, for he drives what is known as a "boom car." The auto mechanic from Gardena, Calif., spent $8,000 to install the vehicle's current stereo system, which comprises a deluxe Alpine 7902 compact-disc player, two heavy-duty Orion amplifiers and 32 speakers. His rig can deliver a bone-jarring 144 decibels of sound. "I just got carried away," he admits...
Tabarez is not booming alone. Across the U.S., thousands of young, mostly male, boom-car aficionados are ripping out their backseats and dashboards to make room for stereo equipment as advanced as audiophiles have at home. Says Danny Moore of East Orange, N.J.: "Girls all want to go out with the guy with the loudest car." Besides rattling neighborhoods, boom-car fever has created a thriving market for manufacturers of exotic stereo equipment. They include not only such established Japanese companies as Sony and Nakamichi but also specialized U.S. firms like Mitek of Winslow...
...Boom-car buffs emphasize that they use the latest digital technology to achieve quality in their sound, not just quantity. "It is an art form to manage a car interior sonically," says Steve Seidl, who outfits boom cars at Speaker Warehouse in Hollywood, Fla. "We use a spectrum analyzer to measure the 'pink noise' in the car or to focus the sound on the driver...
Since the real estate boom of the early 1980s, however, the condo developers and national chain stores have moved up from Harvard Square, slowly edging out the old way of life along Mass...