Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon

Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon Live music & concert photography | Lawrence & Kansas City
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🦝 Slightly feral.

Entirely capable.

🦝 FIELD OBSERVATION- Some thoughts on humans. Humans ALWAYS tell on themselves. The raccoon used to find this surprising...
06/18/2026

🦝 FIELD OBSERVATION- Some thoughts on humans.

Humans ALWAYS tell on themselves. The raccoon used to find this surprising. Now it is *mostly* adorable.

Many are thoughtful. Many are professional. Many possess the rare and valuable ability to experience discomfort without immediately turning it into a public performance.

Others... Well. Others become data, field notes and documentation.

The useful data appears the moment reality fails to cooperate with their expectations. The moment they hear "no." The moment a boundary appears. The moment someone declines the role they have assigned them. The moment they discover another human has agency, autonomy. That is where the interesting behaviors live.

The raccoon no longer wastes energy arguing. Why would she? The humans are perfectly capable of explaining themselves. In fact, they seem unable to stop.

A strange species. Present them with an opportunity to quietly move on with their lives and many will instead choose to provide additional data.

Repeatedly. Sometimes for days.

The raccoon appreciates the dedication to the scientific process. After enough years collecting observations, certain patterns become impossible to ignore.

Who cannot make eye contact. Who suddenly becomes fascinated with conversations that do not involve them. Who watches. Who whispers. Who circles. Who performs. Who attempts to recruit an audience. Who becomes deeply invested in a situation they insist does not concern them.

And before long, the story tells itself.

Curious. Very curious.

The younger raccoon occasionally worried about these things. The older raccoon simply takes data and field notes, and documents it all because humans have a remarkable habit of announcing exactly who they are. Especially when they are attempting not to.

Humans are loud.

Even when they are silent. Especially when they are silent. Or nervous.

The behavior always arrives before the confession. The behavior IS the confession.

The raccoon has learned that character is not revealed when life is easy. Character is revealed when reality declines to cooperate. When someone encounters a boundary. When someone is denied a desired outcome. When someone discovers the universe has no intention of rearranging itself for their comfort.

That is when the data becomes useful.

Field note pending. The room continues to leave evidence. The raccoon continues to collect it.

Behavioral Science Field Note: When words and behavior disagree, trust the behavior.

Humans are self-reporting organisms. The behavior IS the message.

The humans provide the data, the raccoon collects it.

Hypothesis supported.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

— Laverna the Rockin' Raccoon 🦝🖤

06/16/2026

You don’t get a new life without looking a little crazy to the people who knew the old you. Embarrassment is the tuition you pay to learn new skills, pursue your vision, and outgrow your old patterns. This matters in real life because every promotion, new business, or healthier habit starts with an awkward, uncomfortable, but exciting first step. When you avoid looking foolish, you also avoid growth, opportunity, and a better future. Keep going.

🦝🖤 FIELD REPORT: DARKSIDE TURNS FIVEFive years ago, a group of humans decided Kansas City needed a place for creatures o...
06/16/2026

🦝🖤 FIELD REPORT: DARKSIDE TURNS FIVE

Five years ago, a group of humans decided Kansas City needed a place for creatures of the night to gather. The data suggests they were correct.

And I am glad they did.

Because today we have Darkside because of it. A place where goths, industrial kids, elder creatures, baby bats, vampires, ravers, artists, weirdos, and curious wanderers can gather beneath lasers and basslines and simply exist together.

That is not a small thing.

Thanks to the *mostly* humans of Kansas City Goths, that space exists. For five years they have been building, nurturing, and protecting a community where people can show up exactly as they are and be welcomed.

This Saturday, June 19, 2026 at 8:30 pm at Sound Bite Social, Darkside celebrates five years of dark music, alternative culture, community, connection, and giving the beautifully strange a place to belong.

The raccoon has spent enough time documenting Darkside to know that it is more than a dance night. It is a habitat. A carefully cultivated ecosystem where people can show up exactly as they are and be welcomed. A rare achievement in the wild.

For five years, KC Goths and Darkside have been building community one gathering at a time.

That matters. The venue matters. The DJs matter. The organizers matter. The humans who keep showing up matter. Because culture does not magically appear. People build it. Then they protect it. Then they invite others into it.

And if you've ever been goth-curious, this is your sign. Come out. Seriously.

The raccoon speaks from experience. Darkside is one of the most welcoming communities I have encountered. You do not need to know the music. You do not need the wardrobe. You do not need a membership card from the Council of Elder Goths.

Just show up.

The creatures are friendly.

Mostly.

If you would like to see what the habitat looks like, the raccoon has collected a few months of photographic evidence here:

https://mymidlifecrisiscreativeinc17.pixieset.com/kansascitygoths-soundbitesocial-darkside/

Happy 5th Anniversary, Darkside.

Happy 5th Anniversary to the humans of KC Goths who made it possible.

The raccoon intends to collect additional data.

Additional field notes forthcoming.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

— Laverna the Rockin Raccoon 🦝🖤
Slightly Feral Media

Alethea Mehdipour

🦝🖤 NEW FIELD REPORT PUBLISHEDThe room left evidence.The raccoon finally finished sorting through it.Some shows are conce...
06/16/2026

🦝🖤 NEW FIELD REPORT PUBLISHED

The room left evidence.

The raccoon finally finished sorting through it.

Some shows are concerts. Some shows are experiences.

This was the second kind.

The latest Slightly Feral Media field report is now live, documenting an unforgettable evening at Warehouse On Broadway featuring Drifter, 40 Watt Sun, and Stygian Bough.

This is not a concert review. This is a journey. Into the void. Into ourselves.

Into the presence of something ancient.

From Drifter opening the gateway, to 40 Watt Sun handing the audience a mirror, to the immense and haunting collaboration between Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin known as Stygian Bough, this was an evening that reminded the raccoon exactly why local music matters.

Inside:

🦝 Live music photography from Warehouse on Broadway

🦝 Drifter and the forest beyond the gate

🦝 40 Watt Sun and the art of sitting with grief

🦝 Dylan Desmond’s earth-shifting bass work

🦝 Stygian Bough, Bell Witch, and Aerial Ruin

🦝 Why local artists continue to change lives

🦝 The origin story of Slightly Feral Media

Read the full field report here:

https://slightyferalmedia.blogspot.com/2026/06/stygian-bough-warehouse-on-broadway-drifter-40-watt-sun.html

View the full gallery here:

https://mymidlifecrisiscreativeinc17.pixieset.com/stygianbough40wattsundrifterwarehouseonbroadway/

Local music matters. Local artists matter. Local venues matter. The humans making these things happen matter. More than they probably realize.

Field note complete.

The room left evidence.

The raccoon collected it.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

Romanticizing The Void Responsibly.

— the Rockin’ Raccoon 🦝🖤
Alethea Mehdipour

🦝🖤 FIELD OBSERVATIONSometimes the Guitar Gods, Lighting Gods, and Hair Gods sit down for a meeting.The results are rarel...
06/15/2026

🦝🖤 FIELD OBSERVATION

Sometimes the Guitar Gods, Lighting Gods, and Hair Gods sit down for a meeting.

The results are rarely subtle.

Dylan Desmond of Stygian Bough—a collaboration between Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin—looking less like a bassist and more like the ancient thing Drifter’s drums spent the entire evening summoning.

The evidence suggests the meeting was successful.

Additional field notes from the journey into the void forthcoming.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

◈ Romanticizing The Void Responsibly ◈

— Laverna the Rockin’ Raccoon 🦝🖤
Slightly Feral Media
Alethea Mehdipour

Or both.
06/15/2026

Or both.

🦝🖤 FIELD REPORT: SILVER LININGSThe raccoon had the absolute pleasure of celebrating with my friends in Barrage and their...
06/15/2026

🦝🖤 FIELD REPORT: SILVER LININGS

The raccoon had the absolute pleasure of celebrating with my friends in Barrage and their humans for the release of *Silver Linings*.

This was my first album release party. The data suggests they are different creatures entirely.

Live music is already a powerful thing. Add celebration. Add relief. Add pride.

Add the dopamine rush that comes from successfully completing a complex creative task that required months of effort, sacrifice, persistence, rehearsal, rewriting, recording, problem-solving, and refusing to quit.

THEN gather everyone who helped make it happen into one room. What you get is not merely a concert. YOU GET AN ALBUM RELEASE CELEBRATION.

You get a room full of people celebrating the moment an idea officially becomes real.

The energy was different. The smiles were different. The joy was different. The humans knew exactly what they had accomplished. And for a few hours, everyone in the room got to celebrate with them.

There is much data still to process. Much evidence remains to be cataloged. For now, here are a few photographs of Barrage doing what Barrage does.

Additional field notes forthcoming.

More information about Barrage and *Silver Linings* can be found here:

https://linktr.ee/barragekc

Field note pending.

The room left evidence.

The raccoon is processing it.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

— Laverna the Rockin' Raccoon 🦝🖤

Slightly Feral Media · Published by My Midlife Crisis Creative Inc.
Alethea Mehdipour

🦝🖤 FIELD OBSERVATION: DrifterI can hear this photograph. Not metaphorically. Not poetically. I can actually hear it.I ca...
06/15/2026

🦝🖤 FIELD OBSERVATION: Drifter

I can hear this photograph. Not metaphorically. Not poetically. I can actually hear it.

I can feel these drums rolling through my bones. At this point, I’ve listened to Drifter often enough that the sound is familiar. Not familiar because it has become ordinary. Familiar because it has become part of the landscape.

Part of my map. Part of the route home. For those of us wired a little differently, music is not always something we hear. Sometimes it arrives as texture. Sometimes as color. Sometimes as movement. Sometimes as an entire sensory experience that lights up every strange little neuron in the brain simultaneously.

Drifter does that to me.

The drums arrive first. Then the vibration. Then the weight.

Then something ancient wakes up.

Something that predates language. Something that remembers thunder. Something that remembers being small around large things.

These are not merely drums. These are summoning devices. The evidence is visible in this photograph.

If you cannot hear them from here, the raccoon strongly recommends scrambling across the internet to Drifter’s Bandcamp and conducting independent field research:

https://drifterriffs.bandcamp.com/music

Results may include goosebumps, existential reflection, and an increased appreciation for doom metal, post-metal, and heavy underground music.

Additional photographic evidence from Drifter, 40 Watt Sun, and Stygian Bough will be released soon.

The field note is still in progress.

The room left evidence.

The raccoon is still collecting it.

Slightly feral. Entirely capable.

Romanticizing The Void Responsibly.

— LAVERNA THE ROCKIN RACCOON 🦝🖤
Slightly Feral Media · Published by My Midlife Crisis Creative Inc.
Alethea Mehdipour

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Kansas City, KS
66101-66113, 66115, 66117-66119, 66160

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