Author: Stephen Ai

My master's thesis is close to being submitted! Woohoo. Here's my short 200-word abstract, since I really cannot be bothered to write anything more about it. The title is "Learning Well-tempered Behavior: The Performance of Bach's Keyboard Works on the Ill-tempered Piano." It is OK if you do not want to read it; I don't… Continue reading Academic Clickbait →

Musicology grad school update: I’m writing about weird shit again. For my Early Modern Listening seminar, I’m dipping my hands into the incredibly niche field of gastromusicology, a field that combines food studies with musicology. I’m trying to investigate links between food, nutrition treatises, and early modern opera, specifically in the musical treatment of fruits… Continue reading Eating for Love →

One of my biggest non-professional life goals is to become The Dip Mom. Let me explain. The Dip Mom (henceforth, TDM) is usually an older, white woman living in New England who is happily married (at least, outwardly) with two to three children who recently graduated from Ivy Leagues and have since successfully launched their… Continue reading Dinner P(art)ies →

It's me! I'm back with proper capitalization! I went to bed for a nap after I published my delirious kombucha post and just woke up, a full month later. Sorry 'bout it! It's good to see you again. Let's recap. Back in October, I made it through the second ring, nostalgia, after braving my way through the first… Continue reading New Year’s Calibrations →

school is kind of really hard. i never thought i would have so much trouble at school, especially in music. i spent all of williams complaining about math. i should have taken my undergrad musicological studies more seriously. i have final submissions for the first term soon. i want to be a serious bach scholar… Continue reading i am so tired →

Hello all, Today is November 22nd, 2018, which means a couple things to me. First, it's Thanksgiving! I'm celebrating the United States' radical derecolonization by going to music skills seminar in the motherland at the University of Cambridge. Speaking of colonialism, this day also marks the 55th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Don't… Continue reading Mirai no Stephen →

Congee is a porridge or gruel made primarily from rice with other grains and legumes. It was known to me as 稀饭 (xīfàn, literally "watery rice"). It isn't a particularly exciting meal. In fact, I sort of hate it. Don't worry. I am not lazy enough to make congee this post's recipe. Just in case,… Continue reading Yellow Lies →

In 8th grade, I learned in Ms. Boman's science class that cooking an egg is an example of an irreversible reaction. This means that a cooked egg can never be turned back into a raw egg. I began to write a post relating cooking eggs to irreversible change in my life, but it quickly became an… Continue reading Uncooking Eggs →

A short note before I begin. I'm starting this notebook because I think I should be doing more writing in general, but not the kind of academic writing I've been inundated with recently. As with my recipe book, this is an informal collection of recipes from friends and family as a means of preserving my… Continue reading Hello / Broth as a Cure →