Is this intelligence?

Is memorization intelligence? What is the point of memorizing random strings of numbers, unrelated words, decks of cards? Isn’t this a skill better mastered by computer?

The acquisition of knowledge involves many functions, memory being one of them. To become an intelligent person, you do not necessarily need to memorize. What you do with information is much more important.

As a young pianist, my teachers believed in the memory of muscles. That it was important to get the shape of the music in your hands, the notes in your memory at a young age. As you mature, you will be able to add experience to your performances of this repertoire.

So, I dutifully memorized my way through Preludes and Fugues by Bach, Etudes by Chopin and -

32 Beethoven Sonatas.

Why bother?

If you ask me what I have on my iPod,  you would see right away I am a classically trained pianist.  An unapologetically opinionated lover of piano repertoire.

I have recordings of the four Chopin Ballades by several great pianists performed live and in the studio at various points of their careers.   Arturo Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Lang Lang.  Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould, both versions.  Anything by Granados performed by Alicia De Larrocha.

Obviously, it is not their prowess in memorization that is impressive.  The ability to memorize is a given.  The power to touch souls  is something much greater.

Go ahead, impress me

You can learn some cool tricks to help you memorize all kinds of things.  I, who did OK in high school for a lazy Asian kid growing up in Queens, did not have the talent for standardized testing that my brother and sister had.  I had to find ways to stuff incredible amounts of – at the time, meaningless – data in my head for short periods of time.  I used “memory palaces”, chunking, visual associations, all kinds of tricks and shortcuts that you will probably find in Joshua Foer’s book, Moonwalking with Einstein.

What you will be able to do is memorize poems.

That is really wonderful.

Especially if you want to impress someone on a first date.

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

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Boo Who?

When I started writing Ghostmistress, I asked Sky what he liked to read and why in a post about what thirteen year olds like to read.  He shrugged and said,

“I dunno. Whatever.”

He was, however, thoughtful enough to suggest that I put together a writing elective with his teacher and work with a group of kids, not him of course, to find out for myself what appeals to young readers.

Ghostmistress is the result of this journey and it is the place where close to fifty members of my Boo Crew read my weekly serial ghost story, comment, and post their own writing.  We are at Week 5 and heavy into character development and figurative language.  I am amazed and truly appreciative of the feedback I get from this group and I love their boldness in their thinking and their own creative writing.

Inspired?

Float by Ghostmistress and subscribe as a Boo Crew writer!

Here’s a video about writing great characters for you.

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Looking for a Cool Place to Take Your Mom Out to?

We were out on the town for a night of flamenco and a Greek dinner.  Seth, me and my mom.  A triple date.

The American Bolero Dance Company presented a Tablao Flamenco in a packed auditorium in Astoria.  Disclaimer: This group received a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts and we were invited to the performance as site auditors.  My mother loves to dance and if you haven’t seen my little video of her cha cha class, here it is.  She was delighted to have the chance to sit knee to knee among flamenco lovers at cafe tables to watch this passionate group of dancers.  In fact, she has volunteered to do more of these performance audits.

“I could bring my dance class.  They would love to see other dancers.  And in Queens!”

Why Look Outside Your Own Backyard?

What did Dorothy discover at the end of the Wizard of Oz?

That’s right.  There’s no place like home.

And if you live in Queens like I do, boy is that ever true.  Not only is it home for me, it is home for people from over 147 different countries.

Do the math.  That is 147 different types of cuisines, culture, music, art …

What a moveable feast!

Here’s What You Do

Gus and his brother Chris buy the wine and beer for Sanfords in Astoria.  They have one of the most intriguing menus and drinks to go with it.  You can usually find Gus holding court with local impresarios and characters in the back booth from the late afternoon to evening.  When his dad, the original proprietor of the original Sanfords in its black and white photo days, is not cruising around Greece, he is also part of the character set of this very eclectic and uniquely Astoria establishment.

Check out Sanfords after work.  Have a seat at the bar in the back and order a glass of Tres Picos.  That’s what Gus put in my hands the last time we were there.

Delicioso!

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Hey Boo Crew!

I’m not sure what happened but I really thought I had embedded this video in yesterday’s post.    This is Rockaway in all of its wintry windswept splendor – the setting for Ghostmistress, my online writing project for thirteen year old writers.

Anyway, here it is.

Enjoy!

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Would you like to write one?

Thirty twelve and thirteen year old kids said yes to my question and are now members of my Boo Crew. Every week I post a new scene from my ghost story, Ghostmistress, and they comment, respond to my challenge questions and post their own stories on Ghostmistress.com.

Why Six Words?

This is a fabulous way to get to the most important words of your story. I challenged them to read the story I posted in Week 2 called The Strange Incident at the Hotel Mystique and distill it down to six words.

I gave them a few examples:

Unsolved mystery and tea in diner

Ghostmistress drinks tea and plots revenge

And here are a few gems from my Boo Crew:

Spooky hotel, death… and scrambled eggs

Death on a bun is filling

Murder, mystery and revenge for Ghostmistress

Suspicious, malicious and oh so vicious

Murder with a side of tea

Do you know what you can do with a six word ghost story?

When you are in the elevator with a Hollywood movie producer you can turn to him or her and say,  ” Have I got a movie idea for you.  Here it is – “.

As you are waiting at the bar for a drink, you can smile at the publisher fumbling with his or her cell phone and wineglass and say,  ”Oh, let me help you with all that.  By the way, you look like someone who enjoys ghost stories.  I have one you will love – ”

At the launch of your wildly successful book tour, the crowd presses against the table you are seated at signing copies of your book and you have run out of books but never fear, your assistant hurtles through the store clutching a box to his chest and lands at your feet with the grace of a linebacker landing in the endzone.  You rip open the box and triumphantly hold up what your clamoring fans are reaching for.

A sexy black T shirt that says,

“I’ll have tea, gossip and mystery.”

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Remy

Can You Really Interest Your Son in Painting the Kitchen?

Listen, any chance I get to hang out with my boys, Remy and Sky, I jump for. Painting our kitchen doesn’t seem like the most obvious place to do this but I thought it would be a kind of quirky place to have a little fun.

Feed Your Talent

This is the secret to my success. I can get Remy and Sky to do almost anything if I feed them first. Yes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I made them both a Manly Man Breakfast this morning and when they were finally full and happy I asked them to help me pick out colors for the kitchen. They never saw it coming!

Do Dramatic Readings

Ask your son to pick out colors? Are you insane? Of course you’re not nor would you ever think of such a thing! How do you tackle that tactfully?

Get Pumped About It

Facebook it!   Mikki, my daughter, loved seeing Remy get into this project and shared it with her friends.  The fate of my kitchen is now in the hands of my kids and we are having a great time together figuring it out.

Here’s a video for you to enjoy!

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Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Hoong Yee

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Let’s Redo Your Kitchen

If you have a really old house like me, you probably live in a constant state of home improvement. Once you fix one thing, you end up fixing five other things. And don’t you hate having to pay more for stuff because you have to maintain the look and character of the house?

David, our friend and contractor who is working on our kitchen, is trying to teach us how a house is built. For Seth and me, this is like learning Norwegian.

Not going to happen.

See if you have better luck, here’s a video.

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

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– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Tips on Not Looking Fat

It is just starting to snow and I thought the best way to keep warm would be to look at some of my Flip video footage, especially of warm weather, and make a couple of one minute Wow! videos for your viewing pleasure.

This one was taken in Chicago on the short stretch of sand by the lake and features words of wisdom about looking fabulous and chic – in other words, not fat, according to the Son of Mildred, Seth Krakauer.

Here’s to your svelteness!

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Desire in an art gallery…

I love talking to artists.

Last Thursday, Seth and I went over to the Dean Project for the opening of a Long Island City artist, Carol Peligian.  How we got there was a typical New York City story of traffic and crazybusy schedules.  How Carol got there was a much more interesting story.

Let me just say that in this world of art and artful living, you must always be open to the universe of possibilities.  And desire.

Here’s a little video of my chat with her.

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

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Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?

Rubinstein

Horowitz

Li

The past decade was all about information.

Technology tripped all over itself to perfect the search function, web developers created all kinds of platforms like Wikipedia to collect information that would surface at the touch of a keyword.  We were dazzled by all of the stuff we could get to,  we were drowning in facts and figures.  Now we are dazed by the endless stream of data that surrounds us.   We don’t know where to begin.

Think about it.  You don’t want to wade through pages upon pages of sites about the Chopin Ballades for piano.  You would probably pay for a site to deliver a select  sampling of recordings by ArturoRubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yundi Li with an analysis focusing on the period of history in which they were composed and a critique of each performer’s style.

Or something like that.  I know I would.

I want something unique, well researched and unexpected.

And I am not alone.  Everyone wants something special.

This is what art is.  This is what artists do.  The experience of art has the power to provoke, startle, transcend and yes, transform you.   This is what I want.

I am excited to see what what our world will become when technology lays in the hands of artists.  When knowledge is learned  through the senses and not the intellect.

What do you look for when you are searching for something?  How do you know decide what is important to keep and what isn’t?

Here are three videos of my favorite pianists performing Chopin Ballade No. 4 for you to enjoy while thinking about  -

What do you really want?

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If you want style notes and more for people who change the world, please check out:

Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good

Nonprofit Knitwear for all things knit and nonprofit

Style Notes from me, your artspy

Hoong Yee

– Subscribe and get a little Wow! every day

– Forward the link to someone you think would be interested

– Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @hylkrakauer)

– Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your help.

Word of mouth is the best way to share, don’t you agree?