Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 21

DemocratandChronicle.com OS Wednhaav 1 jcrnrn 10400 If you are what you eat, you may want to take sides on labeling genetically engineered food. Turn to Page 3C i ACTIVE LIVING DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE Write us If you've improved your health and maintained good habits over time, send us a 150-word, typed essay about why and how you changed and how you feel about it. Also send your age, fitness routine and maintenance tips, and include your name, daytime phone number, address and e-mail address, if available. E-mail or mail How I Stay Fit, Features, Democrat and Chronicle, 55 Exchange Rochester, NY 14614. Music stars' show tonight touched by controversy STAFF REPORTS Whitewater kayaking stirs the adrenaline as it fires up muscles BY STAFF WRITER met V'.

I. I Claudette Colbert Event of the day The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House is screening The Palm Beach Story, a 1942 black-and-white screwball comedy that may be writer-director Preston Sturges' best film. Claudette Colbert stars as an engineer's wife who takes a vacation from marriage and encounters an odd group. Tickets are $5, $4 for members and students, available before the 8 p.m. showing.

For more information, call 271-3361. GARY FALLESEN Tony Hernandez's friends would come back from white-water kayaking trips and talk excitedly about the experience. Hernandez was tired of missing out on the muscle-pumping, adrenaline rush of running a set of rapids, so he took some home-schooling from his paddling pals and hit the water. "That was back in the days before there were many organized classes," Hernandez says, recalling his introduction to Whitewater the aptly named "Entrance Rapid" on the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park. The starter rapid flipped his kayak and forced him to make a wet exit.

"Ten seconds into my boat and I was swimming," remembers Hernandez, 31, of Rochester. From that inauspicious entrance into a new sport seven years ago, Hernandez has become an accomplished instructor. "It's challenging," he says. "It's physical. It's a way to get exercise." Whitewater kayaking is a good overall workout.

Paddling will benefit everything from your hamstrings to your shoulders. It will strengthen your abdominal You might look at tonight's CMA Awards hosted for the ninth straight year by Vince Gill, newly wedded to oh-so-nice Amy Grant and say, "Yawn." But don't let all that goodness get you down. It's a competition, after all. Mainstream chanteuse Faith Hill will duke it out with her husband, Tim Mc-Graw, for entertainer of the year. Despite controversy over its female-empowering themes, Goodbye, Earl has the Dixie Chicks in the running for video of the year; they're also up for entertainer of the year.

And there are some tunes on the menu: Dixie Chicks Will perform the (also controversial) Sin Wagon; Mc-Graw will perform the un-released Things Change; and Alison Krauss and Billy Dean will perform Buy Me a Rose with Kenny Rogers (late of the latest Wyclef Jean album). With that in mind, here are the major nominees for the 34th annual ceremony, to air at 8 tonight on Channel 8. Entertainer of the year: Dixie Chicks, Hill, Alan Jackson, McGraw, George Strait. Vocal group of the year: Alabama, Asleep at the Wheel, Diamond Rio, Dixie Chicks, Lonestar. Male vocalist of the year: Gill, Jackson, McGraw, Brad Paisley, Strait.

Female vocalist of the year: Hill, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack, Trisha Yearwood. Horizon Award: Sara Evans, Montgomery Gentry, Paisley, SHeDAISY, Chely Wright. Song of the year: Amazed by Marv Green, Aimee Mayo and Chris Lindsey; Breathe by Holly Lamar and Stephanie Bent-ley; He Didn't Have To Be by Paisley and Kelly Lovelace; I Hope You Dance by Mark D. Sanders and Tia Sillers; Afurder On Music Row by Larry Cordell and Larry Shell. Album of the year: Breathe, Hill; Fly, Dixie Chicks; I Hope You Dance, Womack; Under the Influence, Jackson; Who Needs Pictures, Paisley.

Video of the year: Breathe, Hill; Goodbye Earl, Dixie Chicks; He Didn't Have To Be, Paisley; How Do You Like Me Toby Keith; I Hope You Dance, Womack. i For details on the ceremony, go to: www.broadcast.co-mentertainment and artsmusic- genrescountrycma awardsnominees.html Who knew? Just a couple of bucks. You don't come across many $2 bills these days. There are supposedly 583 million in circulation, but that's just one $2 bill for every 400 dollar bills. If you can't find any at your bank, you can buy them.

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing sells uncut sheets of $2 bills (and other currency). A sheet of 32 $2 bills is $85; four bills cots $19. Order at www.bep.treas-.govstore or send a check to: Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Mail Order Sales, Room 515M, 14th Streets, SW Washington, DC 20228. Call (800) WHITEWATER, page 3C JEFFERSON How does this help your body? fcVT -f rM- 1 OSWEGO Cardiovascular 01 Whitewater kayaking provides anaerobic exercise ONEIDA ROCHESTER MONROE i v.

similar 10 f. LIVINGSTON weignt training when you are running rapids. I Moving water with small waves. II Easy rapids with waves up to three feet. III Rapids with high, irregular waves.

IV Long, difficult rapids with narrow, turbulent passes that should be scouted from shore. Extremely difficult, long and very violent rapids with highly congested routes that must be scouted from shore. VI Nearly impossible and very dangerous. However, it also provides an aerobic workout when racing, surfing or paddling against the current. Muscles worked Paddling strengthens hamstrings, inner thighs, the gluteus (buttocks), abdominals, lower back, shoulders, neck and arms.

Distance from Water Put-in downtown Rochester Class Lock 32 Pittsford 15min. I-II Genesee River Letchworth State Park 1 12 hr. Il-lll Cattaraugus Creek Springville, Erie Co. 2 hrs. Il-lll Salmon River Altmar, Oswego Co.

2 hrs. Il-lll Salmon River Pineville, Oswego Co. 2 hrs. Il-lll Salmon River Route 2A, Oswego Co. 2 hrs, Jl-Iil Black River Watertown, Jefferson Co, 2 12 hrs.

111-1 Black River Hawkinsville, Oneida Co. 3 hrs. Il-lll 'West Wing' On TV tonight A two-hour season premiere of The West Wing which won nine Emmys starts at 9 p.m. on WHEC-TV (Channel 10). The assassination attempt that ended the first season has left White House staffers and the country reeling.

Turn to Page 5C for today's TV listings. IAN AUCH staff artist Gary Graffman's repertoire transcends limits of abilities RPO in concert makers get it, and now computer users. There's no cure. Did you undertake a big hunt to find left-hand pieces? A small hunt the first large work I studied when I -could play with only one hand. Did you suffer a sudden injury? No, it happened gradually; I didn't know Who: Pianist Gary Graffman and Music Director Christopher Seaman.

What: Season opener with Dukas's "Fanfare and Poeme Danse" from La Peri, Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Elgar's Symphony No. 1. When: 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. Where: Eastman Theatre, 60GibbsSt.

Tickets: Call: The new RPO box office at 454-2100 or Wegmans video departments. it would be permanent. It's called dystonia (say dis-STONE-ee-ah); it's a symptom, not a disease. There are involuntary muscle twitches, but no visible injury and nn nain Tflp fniirth the big works I knew of, like the Prokofiev Fourth Concerto. William Bolcom wrote a double concerto for me and Leon Fleisher (the renowned 72-year-old pianist who has also been unable to 8 Thursday and Saturday, the 71-year-old dean of the piano performs the remarkable Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand as opening soloist for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra season.

Affable and gregarious, he talks about music and medicine by phone from his home in Philadelphia: Question: The Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand is so popular that most pianists play it, don't they? Answer: Absolutely right. It's the only major left-hand piece played by "normal" pianists. It's considered to be one of the greatest compositions of a great composer. But as it happens, I did not play it before my injury. It became BY STAFF MUSIC CRITIC SHARON McDANIEL Gary Graffman is an institution.

He has appeared on the concert stage for more than five decades, with recordings that attest to a career of superb piano artistry. But in 1979, problems with his right hand curtailed the concertizing. He redirected his energies to administration and just celebrated his 15th anniversary running the school from which he graduated, Philadelphia's renowned Curtis Institute of Music. Graffman returns occasionally to stage and recording with another career music for the left hand alone. At 8 p.m.

Pet peeves. Why are parking-meter violations so costly? Why don't the pedestrian-crossing buttons quickly make the traffic stop? And can anything be done about the garbage trucks whose brakes squeak obnoxiously? We get to the bottom of some pet peeves. Tomorrow on Page 1C. Chris Swingle collected items for this column Irom staff and wire reports. More inside Columns 2C Movies 6C Comics 4C Television 5C and fifth fingers Graffman If it's by a great composer, it doesn't sound like anything is missing.

For more information on the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, go to: www.rpo.org For more inormation on dystonia, go to: Most music after Bach has the melody in the top voice. All my life, that meant (the melody was played by) the fourth and fifth fingers. Now, it's the thumb. But you can learn do that in a month. What responses do you get from audience members who hear a left-hand piece for the first time? will want to close, as if the wrong signals are being sent by the brain.

It's like repetitive-stress syndrome you get by doing very small movements over and over. Microsurgeons and watch- play regularly with his right hand). It was a hunt when I started, but now there are even books on it. What adjustments do you make at the keyboard for left-hand pieces?.