Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 33

Lifestyle INSIDE You may be angry with Mel Gibson, but don't hold it Vie MM against "Apocalypto," his stunning if. new movie. Review: PAGE 3D Features Editor Hannah Maria Hayes, 798-1171 featurespressconnects.com Press Sun-Bulletin pressconnects Friday, December 8, 2006 INSIDE )Mmm4 (mmm GEORGE BAILEY i.vjf r-'l rJTJ KV TJTf M. Appreciating winter's silence Wind can't whistle through leaves like it can through the branches of winter. Winter branches allow it to race around bark unimpeded.

You hear it at night like a distant train whistle a sound only this season makes. Each time of year boasts its own unique sounds. Spring al- ways starts with the trilling of peepers. These tiny tree frogs puff their throats and call out "Winter's dead!" on nights in late March when each air molecule takes on softness that soothes like a blanket. Later on in the season, small ponds attract toads, whose A TALE OF TWO TOWNS Some of the reasons Seneca Falls gives for claiming to be the model for Bedford Falls: Seneca Falls and Bedford Falls are, or were, mill towns.

At the time "It's a Wonderful Life" was filmed, Seneca Falls had a grassy median on part of its main street, just as Bedford Falls has. Other upstate New York cities, including Elmira, are mentioned in the movie. A reference to Cornell University was cut from the script. Both towns feature Victorian architecture and had globe street lamps. Both have large Italian populations.

The train ran through Seneca Falls, just as it did through Bedford Falls. Both towns have a canal and a steel truss bridge. In the film, the Bailey's Savings and Loan Association builds a low-cost housing development called Bailey Park. In Seneca Falls, 19th-century factory owner John Rumsey built a low-cost housing development called Rumseyville. Source: www.TheRealBedordFaJls.com Photo proved by 3 Miiini(nfpiriniiil 'i trp re Finger Lakes town claims it inspired the setting for the famous movie 0 1 II il TiaiaMMa Liii LM Out About anniversary of the film, which was released in December 1946.

Seneca Falls has been celebrating "It's a Wonderful Life" since the mid-1990s, when it began focusing its annual holiday festival on its possible connection to the movie. The first public mention of the link came in 1995, when a local newspaper reporter working on another story casually asked Francis Caraccilo, the village planner, if he'd ever noticed any similarities between his town and Bedford Falls. "I've always thought there were unbelievable similarities," Caraccilo said. See SENECA Page 6D Photos by JEFF RICHARDS Gannett News Service from Britain, was nominated for best new artist Besides Rae, other new-artist nominees were teen singer Chris Brown, Imogen Heap, Blunt and Carrie Underwood. Besides album of the year, The Red Hot Chili Peppers' acclaimed "Stadium Arcadium" was nominated for rock album, and the song "Dani California" By Roger Neumann Gannett News Service he first time she visited Seneca Falls, Karolyn Grimes felt she had stepped back in time all the way to the set of the holiday film classic "It's a Wonderful Life." "When I went there five years ago, there as no doubt in my mind" that Seneca Falls bad been the inspiration for the Bedford Falls of the movie, Grimes said.

"There are just so many things that make me believe that that could be it" Grimes was 6 when she played Zuzu Bailey and spoke the famous line "Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." She will participate in a festival in Seneca Lake today through Sunday to mark the 60th ABOUT THE FILM What: "It's a Wonderful Life" Producer, director: Frank Capra Stars: lames Stewart, Donna Reed Released: December 1946 by RKO Radio Pictures Academy Award nominations: Five (best picture, best actor, best director, best sound recording, best film editing). Won: none. Honors: The American Film Institute ranked it the most inspirational American movie of all time and No. 11 among the greatest American films. Notable: Was a box-office flop when released.

It became a Christmas classic in the 1970s when it was shown repeatedly on TV during the holidays after its copyright protection ran out and stations could air it for free. throat sacs produce trills geared to help us conclude spring is not just a promise, it's here. Honeybee wings take a trill's oscillations and triple them into a buzz around apple tree The Great Outdoors flowers. Little streams trickle while waterfalls gush. Soft bluebird songs waft across lowland meadows.

Junco twitterings fill upland forests. All are spring sounds meant to bolster one's faith in renewal. Summer brings barn swallows tucked in a rafter nest inside a barn needing paint. A parent swoops in and the babies peep loudly more food! That same evening, June bugs bump the screen. A barred owl hoots down in the swamp where, at noon, green frogs twang like an all-banjo band.

In late summer, katydid music begins. Crickets chirp in the darkness and cicadas whine hot days away. "Quarrk!" goes a blue heron rousted from some little backwater. And what of the autumn, soft swan song of seasons? It sounds like wild geese overhead. I've spent many cold late afternoons looking upward, intent on translating their cacophonous migration chorus.

It boils down to: "What a tail-wind! We'll make Chesapeake Bay by the morning." Autumn also means wood duck wings whistling through river canyons of arching black willows. It means beaver tails slapping and incisors gnawing at dusk. And for those who stand quietly, October provides the soft sound of leaves tumbling like wax paper cutouts though branches that soon will stand bare. This circles us back to the sounds out your window right now. The wind through those December branches sounds best when you're tucked in, the covers feel warm and a fire crackles inside the stove.

Maybe a pair of horned owls will be hooting. Come morning, perhaps your skate blades will go scraping across a farm pond smooth as glass or your skis will swish through snow that has fallen so lightly, each flake isn't touching the next. One beautiful sound at this cold time of year is actually no sound at alL It is silence. At dusk in the forest, with the sun having just dropped below the horizon, and the last chickadees having slipped under the overcoats white pines and hemlocks provide, you'll often hear only the quiet of bare bones survival All the ribbons and bows have been stripped from the package. The sole gift this night can bestow on its creatures is permitting each one to awaken alive with a reliable food source nearby.

That's not a bad gift for all Southern Tier humans to wish for this winter. Marsi is a freelance writer from Vestal. E-mail him at info rickmarsi.com. RICK MARSI Doug and Susan Avery proudly display the "It's a Wonderful Life" sign on their residence at 54 Cayuga St in Seneca Falls, a location that many people believe is the house used as a model for the Bailey residence in the movie classic "It's a Wonderful Life." IF YOU GO What: It's a Wonderful Life in Seneca Falls, a winter festival. Where: Seneca Falls, a village of 6,861 people in Seneca County on the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, part of the New York State Barge Canal system, near the northern tip of Cayuga Lake.

It's about a two-hour drive from Binghamton. When: Today through Sunday. Schedule highlights: Today Autograph signing by Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu in the movie), 10 a.m.-noon at Holiday Inn and 2-4 p.m. at the Zuzu Cafe, 107 Fall parade from Ovid Street Bridge down Fall Street to People's Park, with Grimes as grand marshal, 6 p.m.; "It's a Wonderful Life" highlights narrated by Grimes, 7:30 p.m. at Community Center on Water Street.

Saturday Ma Bailey's Hot Hearty Cook Off, along Fall Street; autograph signing by Grimes, Zuzu Cafe, 11 a.m.-noon and 2-4 p.m.; free horse-drawn wagon rides through the village, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; free dance to Joe Pera Band, 8 p.m. at Community Center. Sunday Yuletide Choral Concert, 1:30 p.m. at Women's Interfaith Institute, 140 Fall town hall Christmas tree lighting, 5:30 p.m. at Lower Fall Street behind old town offices.

ON THE WEB A complete schedule can be found online at www.TheRealBedfordFalls.com. At top, this winter scene in Seneca Falls, including a decorated Bridge Street Bridge in the background, invokes thoughts of Bedford Falls, the setting for the 1946 film classic "It's a Wonderful Life." Inset, a plaque honoring Antonio Varacalli was placed on the bridge in Seneca Falls where Varacalli saved the life of a drowning young woman who tried to commit suicide. Some people think that is where director Frank Capra got the idea to have George Bailey jump off the bridge in "It's a Wonderful Life." Below, canal boats are docked along the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, which flows through the village and provides recreational -I IIIIF t- WUwi Mary J. Blige nominated for a leading 8 Grammy awards was nominated for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocaL "Dani California" also received a nomination in the rock song category. Associated Press Mary J.

Blige, whose album "The Breakthrough" was perhaps the biggest in her career, was nominated for a leading eight Grammy Awards on Thursday, including album, record and song of the year. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were also multiple nominees, with six. Other multiple nominees were the Dixie Chicks, James Blunt, John Mayer, Prince and will.Lam. Nominees for album of the year included the Dixie Chicks' "Taking the Long Way," Gnarls Barkley's "St. Elsewhere," Mayer's "Continuum," Justin Timberlake's "FutureSex LoveSounds," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Stadium Arcadium." Corrine Bailey Rae, a pop-soul singer INSIDE List of top nominees PAGE 3D Information your way Get newsletters tailored to your digital lifestyle and sent to your email.

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