I’ve been posting this everywhere lately so I might as well post it on here as well…

I was hoping some of you might like to donate to our fundraising page for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). A couple of weeks ago my wife, Gina, and I announced that we are pregnant with our second son, who is due in late February. We also made it known that, while we are very excited about his impending arrival, we were also anxiously awaiting DNA test results that would let us know if he tests positive for Duchenne. Gina is a carrier of DMD and two of her brothers were born with the disease (one is still alive). Any boy she gives birth to has a 50/50 chance of having the disease, and girls have a 50/50 chance of being a carrier. The testing had been taking an extremely long time — over ten weeks — due to problems with the lab (Athena Diagnostics). Finally, last Friday, we received word that the baby did indeed test positive for DMD. We were devastated by the news and are still trying to come to terms for what it means for our family and the baby’s future. Needless to say, we would appreciate support from those we know, either in real life or vicariously on the Web, during this difficult time. We have set up a fundraising page through an organization called Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy that specifically targets Duchenne, and while we realize times are tough, we’d appreciate it if you could please take a few minutes to visit the page, read more about it, and make a donation if you can:

http://www.parentprojectmd.org/goto/kopp

Duchenne is a degenerative genetic disease that affects one in 3,500 boys. It is the most common form of muscular dystrophy, and there is no cure. This disorder involves rapidly worsening muscle weakness. Boys born with the disease typically start having problems before age six with weakening muscles in the legs, pelvis, arms, neck and other areas of the body, causing difficulty with running, hopping, and jumping, frequent falls, and the ability to walk may be completely lost by age twelve. Death usually occurs by age 25, typically from lung disorders. Treatment for DMD (usually involving steroids, which has significant side effects) aims to control symptoms to maximize quality of life. Gene therapy may become available in the future.

Now you know the main reason why I haven’t done a podcast since last May and why I’ve been pretty much in seclusion lately. This has been a rough few months for us. But I’m hoping that with your generosity as well as continued ad sales on the GaragePunk Hideout that we can continue to raise lots of money to fund research to improve the lives of our son and other boys with Duchenne. All we can do is hope.

Also, if you’d like to keep up with news and information regarding Duchenne muscular dystrophy, please follow @Duchenne_MD on Twitter.

Thank you so much for your time, compassion, and generosity.

This beer is terrible. I’ve had three bottles so far (two the first night and one last night) and have awakened with a bad headache the past two days. On top of that, while I don’t have exquisitely refined taste buds, I’m just not catching any typical pumpkin ale characteristics. It just tastes sour to me. I’m going to have to dump the rest. Could be a bad batch, but it’s not worth the risk to buy anymore. Already sent an email of complaint to MillerCoors. Avoid it at all costs.

Elm logs, bark and hardwood mulch surrounding the bed.

Basically, I love morel mushrooms. I used to hunt them in the woods behind my house when I was a kid growing up out in St. Peters (and found many!). I still remember frying them up in a pan with some butter and enjoying the hell out of them. I hadn’t really thought much about them until recently, last spring in fact, when I got the urge to go out to Babler State Park in May to see if I could find any. I didn’t (I think I waited too long… will try in April next year!). But that didn’t stop me from figuring out a way to try and grow some in our backyard. I know, I know… serious mushroom hunters will tell you the real fun is in the actual hunting for them, and I don’t disagree with that at all, but living in the city and not having a whole lot of time makes it a bit tough to spend a day driving out to a state park and walking around aimlessly in the woods. I’ll still do that when time allows, but why not try to grow some in your yard? If it works, then it’s a great idea. And if it doesn’t, well, at least I gave it a shot.

So I went online and, after poking around on Google for a while, found a site that sells something called a “Morel Habitat Kit.” The “kit” is actually just a plastic bag full of Morchella esculenta (white or yellow morel) mushroom spawn—the kind typically found in Missouri—in some sort of peat moss-type substance. And it wasn’t cheap, either. $29.95, as a matter of fact. But I went ahead and ordered one anyway, thinking it’d be worth it if indeed the kit did produce mushrooms since, well, the damned things are expensive as hell to buy (ranging from $40 to $60 per pound!) and harder than hell to actually find growing in the wild (well, for me, anyway).

The kit arrived with a few weeks left in spring, and I cordoned off a small section of my backyard that was nice and shady and protected from the wind to create my bed, or “Morel Habitat.” The bed is actually a composting area and you’re supposed to keep the soil loose and mix in biodegradable materials like kitchen waste and yard trimmings in order to “sweeten” the soil to a pH level of about 7.0. I don’t have any way of measuring pH levels in soil, but I have a pretty good idea of how to compost since I’ve been doing that for a year or so anyway, so no biggie. I’ve even been collecting compost from the kitchen where I work, so I’ve got a good, strong supply of everything from coffee grounds and tea bags to fruit and vegetable scraps, bread, egg shells… yeah, you get the idea.

Pick an area that's shady and protected from wind.

I must’ve read the instructions that came with the kit at least twice, but ended up not “seeding” my first batch of morel spawn the way that they really recommended. I think I got a bit confused because their instructions are, well, a bit confusing. The kit came with a sheet of paper printed on both sides, with one side explaining the habitat and what to expect, and the other side with a list of instructions. The problem was, the side with the instructions doesn’t really explain how to apply the spawn to the soil, but it does say the bed should be between 9 and 18 inches deep. So I went under the assumption that the spawn should be put in about that deep as well. I dug a big hole about 4′ x 3′, removing most of the soil, tossed in a bucketful of kitchen scraps for composting, and mixed in the spawn before filling it back up with the dirt and mixing it all up. After that, I continued to dig and mix in more compost as the weeks went by. Later, I went back and re-read the sheet and noticed that on the other side of the page (opposite the instructions) is a box that basically tells you to simply clear and turn a 4′ x 4′ area of shaded soil, open the spawn bag and crumple the contents onto the soil and then “turn it under with a shovel, fork, or tiller.” Oops. Turning the spawn under the surface is definitely NOT the same as burying it a foot below the surface. Crap.

Nevertheless, I continued to add my kitchen scraps and kept the soil turned and moistened all summer long, and I could tell the soil was getting to be a pretty nice mix of dirt and compost and started to have more of a consistency and appearance of topsoil than the typical brown, clay-like soil found in our backyard. Then in August I sold a couple of ads over on the GaragePunk Hideout and decided I’d use a bit of that money for buying another bag of spawn. So I planned on applying the spawn of the second bag correctly this time, but first, I did a bit more research and decided to add a few extra ingredients to my morel bed.

When I made the bed originally, I’d placed a chopped up limb of a White Ash tree near my Morel Habitat, after reading that morels like to sprout up near ash trees. The thing is, morels like to sprout up near live ash trees, not dead ones. But I thought having at least some ash wood nearby wouldn’t hurt, and I needed to trim the limb off the tree in our front yard, anyway. But upon further investigation, I found that morels really like to pop up around dead elm trees. With no elm tree anywhere on my property (not to mention dead ones), I called a few local firewood suppliers until I found one that could tell me that he does indeed sell elm and has his piles of wood separated by type of tree, so off I went to Eirich Landscaping to fetch a couple of nice, large elm logs to place adjacent to the bed. I also grabbed several nice large chunks of elm bark, too, in a pretty good state of rot. This is the exact same sort of stuff you’d find out in the woods, so I think it might help. Can’t hurt! And for just ten bucks, I didn’t mind taking the risk. I also tossed some hardwood mulch in, lightly covering the bed with it (not too thick), and then went to my favorite butcher (Baumann’s Fine Meats on Manchester Rd.) and picked up a bag of Ozark Apple Wood Chips for five bucks, because, well, you guessed it, morels also like to sprout up around apple trees, which is why you’ll often find them in old apple orchards. You’re supposed to soak these chips in a water for at least 48 hours before adding them to your bed, so they’re currently soaking in a bowl on our kitchen counter and I’ll add them to the bed Wednesday night. After that, you cover the entire bed with a nice thick covering of leaves (fall is the perfect time to do that) as this helps keep the soil moist and protected from the elements, and is a key ingredient if you expect your morels to pop in the spring. By the way, the information about the ash, elm and apple was not included with my Morel Habitat Kit; I had to find that stuff out on my own.

Another thing I learned is that it’s also good to toss mushroom rinse water on your morel bed, but doing that means I need to actually have some morels to rinse off before I can do it, and it’s not exactly morel season right now. However, I might go down to the Soulard Farmer’s Market and pick up a bag of dried morels, which you have to rehydrate before cooking, anyway, and just using that water. The reason you do this is because the spores from the mushrooms will come off in the rinse water, so you’re actually adding more spores to your bed. This has been known to sprout mushrooms alone!

Please note: The mushroom bed method I’m using was specifically designed for Morchella esculenta morels. Other types of morels require different habitat ingredients, such as burnt wood, sand, etc.

For more information about hunting for or cultivating your own morels, try visiting some of these great sites: Northern Country Morels, The Great Morel, Morels.com, and The Farm. Info about hunting for morels in the Show-Me State can be found on the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Munchable Morels page. And check out this page of Missouri Morels from Morels.com. I purchased my Morel Habitat Kits from Gourmet Mushrooms and Mushroom Products.

I have no idea if this will actually produce mushrooms or not. I’ll just have to wait and see, and keep turning in fresh compost when I can (up until a month or two before they’re supposed to pop). They say it could take several years for them to appear, so I might be waiting for a long, long time. Who knows!

Not one, but TWO ads that both grow and cover up not only the site menu but also most of the stories on the front page… one right after the fucking other. Yeah, yeah, yeah… we all know that the newspaper industry is dying a slow, painful death and they have to find new ways to make money these days in order to try and somehow delay this death, but is this really the answer? The thing about ads in the paper is they don’t interfere with your reading of the paper… they’re off to the side, on their own page or tucked outside of the article boundaries. They don’t jump in front of you, seemingly screaming, “HEY YOU! LOOK AT ME!!” This is beyond annoying and makes me never want to return to their stupid (and poorly designed) website ever again. Is this their intention? Somehow I doubt it. This sorta shit is only going to give people more reasons not to turn to them for the daily news.

Next up in my short little series featuring music recorded by bands playing on my radio show at KDHX is a set by local garage-rockers Thee Lordly Serpents, featuring Roger Ward on drums/vocals, Mike McDaneld on guitar/vocals, and John Ebert on bass/lead vocals. I’m including five of the eight songs they played on the night of September 13, 2004.

Thee Lordly Serpents – Gonna Get You (Live on KDHX)
Thee Lordly Serpents – LSD (Live on KDHX)
Thee Lordly Serpents – Tomorrow’s Yesterday (Live on KDHX)
Thee Lordly Serpents – I Want You Day (Live on KDHX)
Thee Lordly Serpents – Not My Style (Live on KDHX)

I don’t even believe this band is around anymore, but there were five years ago, when they were on tour and had stopped in St. Louis on July 5, 2004, to play a show at the Hi-Pointe that somehow got cancelled. So instead of playing there, they dropped by KDHX and hammered out a set of eight originals and one cover for the handful of listeners who happened to be tuned into my show that night. Here they are:

Red Planet – Goth Girl (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – Blackout (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – It Only Takes One (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – Burning Cigarettes (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – Satellite Radio (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – No Force (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – Days Over You (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – H.O.P.E. (Live at KDHX)
Red Planet – Panama (Live at KDHX)

Doc Detroit hipped me to this band, which features the son of Steve Pohlman, the guy that runs Off Broadway on Lemp. I guess they’re based out of Portland, OR, which is too bad… it’d be nice to see more bands like this spring up right here in River City.

Youthbitch – Straight to Hell (MP3)

T. S. Eliot

“It is self-evident that St. Louis affected me more deeply than any other environment has ever done. I feel that there is something in having passed one’s childhood beside the big river, which is incommunicable to those people who have not. I consider myself fortunate to have been born here, rather than in Boston, or New York, or London.” -T. S. Eliot

Poster by Potter

Our next TIRC live rock’n'roll event is scheduled for THIS Wednesday night at Off Broadway. Yeah, sorry, I’ve been busy and kinda forgot to post about this show ’til just now. So sue me. But c’mon, it’s not like most of you reading this have that much going on on a Wednesday night in the middle of summer, anyway, right? So it shouldn’t be too difficult to rearrange your schedule to squeeze this one in… I mean, really, when was the last time you got to see a great rock’n'roll band from Puerto Rico… or ANY kind of band from Puerto Rico? So, now’s your chance. And these guys are good, too. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t be messing with getting ‘em a show here and promoting them on my website. Life’s too short to promote crap, that’s my motto… or something. So anyway, you’ve got this great band from Puerto Rico, they’re called Davila 666. My guess is that has something to do with the devil or Satan or whatever. Kind of a goofy name, but whatever. Go easy on ‘em, it’s not easy these days to come up with a band name that’s never been used before. So these guys play the kind of music that Kopper (that’s me, duh) really digs… soulful, trashy garage punk. Sorta like a Latin American version of the Black Lips, for those of you that need me to pigeonhole ‘em for ya. If that sounds like it might be up your alley, then I hope to see you at the show. For more info on these guys, visit their Myspace page. Oh, and if what I’m telling you ain’t good enough to convince you to go, then rest assured that ANY band on In The Red Records is one that you should do everything in your power to see perform live at least once before you buy the farm. That, my friends, you can take to the bank. Old Larry Hardy, my friends, that man knows how to run a record label.

Opening the show will be Left Arm and the Nevermores, so get there early to get adequately LUBED for these rockin’ Puerto Ricans.

By the way, RSVP and help promote this event on Facebook… CLICK HERE. Gracias!

The book is called The Moving Forces in the History of Old Bonhomme, The Manchester Missouri Area and was compiled by R. Miriam André, illustrated by Charles E. Biggs. Published by the author in 1982.

This house (originally a log cabin) is said to have been built in 1870 by my great-great-grandfather, Andreas Heinri Carl (”Charles”) Kopp. I’ve been told he purchased the land in 1865 from Jacob Schreiner. An immigrant (having immigrated to the US in 1858 with his father, Frederick, brother, William, and sisters Wilhelmina and Louise), Charles became a naturalized citizen in 1868, and he lived in this house until he died in 1905. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The homeowners did a lot of work on the place, removing the drywall inside to expose the original log walls, and added a master suite and another large bedroom, plus a 2-story garage (garage + upper storage/workshop area). It really is quite beautiful, and the property is nicely landscaped and well maintained. But, it’s $289,000. A realtor friend of mine told me the house is way overpriced for the size house that it is. She told me a nearby 5-bedroom home with a large, finished basement recently sold for $225,000. So you could probably make an offer on the house and get it for much less than they’re asking… if you’re interested. And if you are, just contact my friend (Michelle Graack), her contact info is listed at the top of that listing.

A photo of the house from 1893. Left to right: Charles, granddaughter Annie (Anna) Schroeder, 2nd wife Clementina (nee Weidner), Elizabeth Schroeder (nee Kopp), and a boy that might be his stepson, Charles Steinmeier.

The house as it appeared about a little over a year ago.

There are more photos here.

Here is an email I received from the current owner:

Dear Jeffrey:

Sincerely yours,
Rita Moessmer’
46 Glenn Oaks Drive
Labadie, MO 63055