Slighty Feral Media: The Raccoon's Cabinet of Curiosities

FIELD NOTE// THE FUNCTION OF THE BEHAVIOR Mannequins for Friends, Cold Sweat Cabin and Reptile House at Soundbite Social Warehouse on Broadway Kansas City, Missouri August 5, 2026 Written by: Alethea Mehdipour- Slightly Feral Media  Humans are forever building rooms and then filling them with things the walls were clearly not designed to contain.  Bass. Sweat. Grief. Joy. Somebody’s entire personality expressed through a guitar pedal.  She likes humans this way. Not polished. Not especially sensible. Gathered together in the dark making something temporary and loud and impossible to keep.  The photographs are the data.  The evidence something happened.   On this particular Wednesday, the raccoon arrived at Soundbite Social inside Warehouse on Broadway carrying a camera, several lenses, and the remains of a very long day. The earlier professional habitat remains classified. The small human involved deserves privacy.  The only relevant field note is this...

FIELD NOTE // THE BAND NAMES CHANGED. THE HUMANS KEPT PLAYING. Combo Diablo, the Doo-Dads, and a Slightly Feral Journey Through Kansas City Music History By Alethea F. Mehdipour — Slightly Feral Media THE SHIRT The first thing the raccoon saw was the drummer’s shirt. THE GRAND EMPORIUM. The letters reached into an old, poorly labeled section of the archives, grabbed an entire collection of memories, and dumped them directly onto the floor. The raccoon may have squealed. Not a dignified, professional Kansas City concert photographer squeal. More like a slightly feral teenage girl encountering a boy band in the wild. This was unexpected. She had arrived to photograph Kansas City rock ’n’ roll band Combo Diablo. Instead, before the band had played a single note, drummer Joe Gose was standing there wearing a doorway into the raccoon’s own live-music history. BEFORE THE DIGITAL EVIDENCE Many years ago—decades, even—before digital cameras allowed a raccoon to take 1,200 photographs and quiet...