Too Many Ships - Fall 2004 Application

WOBC-FM FALL 2004 APPLICATION Application due Sept. 5 at 5 PM to Wilder 319 NAMES Jonah Bloch-Johnson & Michael Geraci OCMR/ADDRESSES Talcott 225 – OCMR #1927 & South 305 – OCMR #2001 PHONE NUMBERS (917) 370-3051 & (914) 316-7247) SHOW TITLE Too Many Ships E-MAILS [email protected] & [email protected] T-NUMBERS T00399288 & T00154713 DATE September 2, 2004

DESCRIPTION FOR PROGRAM GUIDE: Hey, if the music grabs you, what does it matter if it was written by a scrawny guy from Portland or a German Kappelmeister with a powdered wig?

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE “Too Many Ships” is a staple of the WOBC Classical night lineup and has been entertaining audiences for a year with its unique combination of Classical and Alt. Rock. Too Many Ships has presented a fresh new lineup of songs and pieces each week, often employing themed playlists, or even creating such specialty shows as “the Short Show” last Halloween, on which each song was no longer than a minute and fifteen seconds! Big on music and small on talk, the show’s hosts Michael Geraci and Jonah Bloch-Johnson each spend a significant amount of time each week preparing the show, drawing upon the resources of South Hall’s iPods and the Conservatory Library respectively. Try hard? Oh yes we do!!! Michael P. Geraci Michael is a student of the TIMARA program, and has become increasingly involved in various music-making enterprises, such as OSteel, Dance Rock Infinity, and I Charge A Mile.

Jonah Bloch-Johnson Jonah is a dual degree mathematics/composition major, and is currently Classical Director at WOBC. He is involved in only one music-making enterprise, College Community Strings.

PICK A GENRE Classical & Pop

HOW WILL YOUR SHOW BE AN ASSET TO THE STATION? WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT YOUR SHOW? The last year has illustrated a couple things about “Too Many Ships:” 1) UNIQUE: Too Many Ships is tremendously unique. Time and time again, as we DJ the show we are both struck by the undeniable fact that there is nothing else out there that even remotely sounds like Too Many Ships—the peculiarities of both of our musical tastes come together in conflicting, contrasting, and coagulating ways. There’s the poignancy of the Palestrina Mass followed by a song by the Red House Painters, or the pungency of the Pavement piece followed by the Prokofiev Sonata. To listen to our show is to hear a good idea in action...to quote from our Fall 2003 application: “...on our own, both of us would be able to create a quality show of interesting and diverse materials in our respective fields, but combined, we shed light on how similar all music is, on the blurring of ‘genres,’ and on the incredible point in music history we have reached when so much music is readily available for listening. The show will also open up new musical worlds to our listeners; those tuning in to hear pop will find classical, and vice versa. Because our show has minimal speaking time, its energy and idea-packed music can be enjoyed both in the background, say at a party or while studying, or as an object unto itself, to be listened to attentively. In a phrase, our music is both vivacious and smart.” At the time, these writings were based on a hypothetical show; that show has come into existence and completely realized these expectations. 2) RELIABLE: Furthermore, this unique high quality show has been brought to WOBC listeners consistently, on every Tuesday night all year. Even when one of the DJ’s has been sick, a replacement DJ has shown up to play his playlist...Too Many Ships is a sub’s worst enemy. I believe that we have also shown radio to be more than an idle curiosity of ours...we quite clearly have gone through a year’s worth of work and are hungry for more.

3) POTENTIALLY POPULAR: Our show could potentially draw a large audience, if only it were earlier. Many people have expressed an interest in our show, or even listened to the beginning of it, but have been unable to listen regularly due to our late hours. 4) HIGH QUALITY PSA PERFORMANCE: “Gain 1000 pounds...AND FEEL GREAT ABOUT IT!”

HOW WILL YOU BE AN ASSET TO THE STATION? As Classical Director, Jonah will be attempting to popularize the station in the Conservatory, to reestablish our connection to record companies like Naxos, and to clean up the Classical vault. Michael will generally be nifty. Our ethos as stated in the Fall 2003 application remains basically unchanged. It reads, as it did then: “Between the two of us, we have a very strong knowledge of over five hundred years’ worth of music, a knowledge that will only grow in depth during our time at the Conservatory and at WOBC. We have both had plenty of experience volunteering for the sake of music, lending A hand where hands are needed, keeping our mouths shut when silence is golden, providing invention when necessity calls, and generally taking what we do very seriously.”

GENERAL SHOW FORMAT (APPROX. TIMES): Intro – (Opening Music, Created For The Show By MG) (0:30) Music Block 1 – (About Five To Seven Songs, Roughly Two Minutes To Seven Minutes In Length, Alternating Between MG And Jonah. No Speaking) (27:30) Speaking 1 – (Titles, Name Of Performers, Etc, For Songs Of Music Block 1) (2:00) Music Block 2 – (Same As Above Music Block) (27:30) Speaking 2 – (Same As Above Speaking) (2:00) Music Block 3 – (Same As Above Music Block) (27:30) Speaking 3 – (Same As Above Speaking) (2:00) Music Block 4 – (Same As Music Block) (27:30) Speaking 4 – (Same As Above Speaking, Plus Closing Explanation Of Show’s Structure (Each Show Has An Underlying Structure, Normally One Supplied For The Classical Pieces And One For The Alt. Rock Pieces, That Work Contrapuntally Against Each Other)) (3:00)

Outro – (Goodbye Music, Also Created For The Show By MG) (0:30)

PROTOTYPE PLAYLIST Writer Title Performer or Album Track # – (Length1 ) Jonah’s Show: String Chamber Music Mike’s Show: Music from the “Heart” DISC 1 Michael Geraci Intro for Too Many Ships Track 1 – (0:33) Wilco I Am Trying to Break Your Heart Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Track 2 – (6:582) Anton Bruckner Rondo in C minor for String Quartet L’Archibudelli Track 3 – (5:20) Creston School of Industry Monkey Heart and the Horse’s Leg All This Sounds Gas Track 4 – (4:25) Johann Sebastian Bach The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus VIII Julliard String Quartet Track 5 – (6:06) I Am Robot and Proud A List of Things That Quicken the Heart In keeping with current aesthetic theories concerning radio, there will be some transitions and fading between songs. 2 Parts of the end of this song will be cut for the actual show, should we have one. 1

No Album3 Track 6 – (5:02) Steve Reich Triple Quartet: III. Third movement Kronos Quartet Track 7 – (3:33) 10 Seconds of Silence Representing a Longer Pause for Back-Announcing & PSA Announcement Beulah If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart When Your Heartstrings4 Break Track 8 – (3:17) Johannes Brahms Sextet in G major, op. 36: II. Scherzo: Allegro non troppo Jascha Heifetz, Israel Baker, violins; William Primrose, Virginia Majewski, violas; Gregor Piatigorsky, Gabor Rejto, cellos Track 9 – (6:34) Modest Mouse Heart Cooks Brain The Lonesome, Crowded West Track 10 – (4:02) Edgar Meyer Quintet (1995): IV. Movement IV Emerson String Quartet; Edgar Meyer, double bass Track 11 – (5:29) Sade Somebody Already Broke My Heart Lovers Rock Track 12 – (5:01) Antonín Dvorák5 Sonata in F major, op. 57: III. Allegro molto 3

Acquired via website. Extra “heart” means extra LOVE. 5 Missing crucial “r” accent. 4

Gil Shaham, violin; Orli Shaham, piano Track 13 – (5:02) Disc 26 (Also Representing a Pause for Back-Announcing & Station Identification) The Pixies Evil Hearted You Alec Eiffel EP Track 1 – (2:38) Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major, op. 76 no. 5: I. Allegretto Takács String Quartet Track 2 – (5:04) Ron Sexsmith Heart’s Desire Cobblestone Runway Track 3 – (4:18) Orlando Gibbons Fantasia a 4 no. 2 ‘for the great double bass’ The Parley of Instruments; Peter Holman, director Track 4 – (4:08) The Lemonheads Big Gay Heart Come On, Feel the Lemonheads Track 5 – (4:37) Osvaldo Golijov Yiddishbbuk: I. Ia. D.W. (1932-1944) Ib. F.B. (1930-1944) Ic. T.K. (1934-1943) Track 6 – (3:40) Everything but the Girl The Heart Remains a Child Walking Wounded Track 7 – (3:50) 10 Seconds of Silence Representing a Longer Pause for Back-Announcing & PSA Announcement For your convenience, we have split up our show into two discs. However, if we were actually on the radio, we would not force our listeners to “change discs.” 6

The Mooney Suzuki The Broken Heart Electric Sweat Track 8 – (5:31) Felix Mendelssohn Octet, op. 20: IV. Presto Jamie Laredo, Alexander Schneider, Arnold Steinhardt, John Dalley, violins; Michael Tree, Samuel Rhodes, violas; Leslie Parnas, David Soyer, cellos Track 9 – (6:02) The Anniversary The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Designing for a Nervous Breakdown Track 10 – (3:08) Serge Prokofiev Sonata for violin and piano no. 1 in F minor, op. 80: IV. Allegrissimo – Andante assai, come prima Gidon Kremer, violin; Martha Argerich, piano Track 11 – (7:27) The World/Inferno Friendship Society Heart Attack ’64 No Album! Track 12 – (2:30) 10 Seconds of Silence Representing a Longer Pause for Back-Announcing & Explanation of Show’s Structure(s) Michael Geraci Outro for Too Many Ships Track 13 – (0:30) Total – (1:53:42)7 EXPLANATION OF CLASSICAL STRUCTURE: Each of these pieces is a piece of string chamber music. EXPLANATION OF POP STRUCTURE: 7

We have left time that would spent back announcing during the “speaking” segments.

All of these songs have the word “heart” in the title.

AVAILABILITY Fill in times you are NOT available: See attached chart.

PREFERENCES – YOUR SUGGESTIONS TO US. We would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a show from 10 pm to 12 am (midnight). This would absolutely make our year. If this is not possible, we vastly prefer 8 pm to 10 pm over 12 am to 2 am.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOUR SHOW BE? Two hours worked fine enough last year...

A SPECIAL NOTE “Too Many Ships” was an idea started over a year ago, at Horace Mann High School: “...we would like to note that having a show at WOBC was not an idea that started when we arrived, but rather one that has evolved since we first received our letters of acceptance in the mail, or internet, as the case may be. We have spent a lot of time thinking the logistics of this show over; for example, the recording of someone murkily intoning ‘too many ships’ was made at our high school last spring, along with other show titles. Our point is, this is not a passing fancy for us, but rather a very real dream, nurtured over late night telephone conversations about our future college.” These thoughts, from our Fall 2003 application, put us in a sentimental mood, remembering our first crazy days at Oberlin. We look forward to continuing our dream in the future, and sharing the music with the whole Oberlin world... Your humble applicants, Jonah Bloch-Johnson & Michael Geraci