Under a Black Rainbow

It's only five-ish months into the pandemic and I've decided to start reading some of my own stories out into the internet. I figure if I can't create new stuff, I can at least create a little buzz about the old stuff if some people still haven't had a chance to check it out.  So here's the first Story Time with Bucho. A test run, if you will. I'd previously planned on doing this via Snap Chat, but maybe doing all this through YouTube will be the easier thing, especially for sharing across social media platforms.  Hit the follow button on my Facebook author page to get future updates on my personal publishing news, new books I'm putting out, and more episodes of me reading both new and old material.  Feel free to snag a copy of either of my books on Amazon as well:  "The Machinery of the Heart: Love Stories"   (A collection of interactive short stories) "Scaring the Stars into Submission" (A surrealist version of a science fiction collect...

I have always had an appreciation for the dark and the weird, but it wasn't until I got to grad school that I realized I also appreciated that in my fiction. Primarily with books like " House of Leaves," "The People of Paper," and "The Book of Lazarus." For whatever reason, I found myself very comfortable in the chaos found on the pages of those books. They were fictional narratives that colored outside the lines and made their own distinct choices as to how they wanted to be told. They were original and bold and I was enthralled by the formatting and narrative possibilities they awakened in my own writing.  More often than not, I'm also drawn to the more challenging narratives found in film or art. I like the absolute weirdness found in David Lynch's work (specifically  Twin Peaks ), though I confess to not understanding a great deal of what he's attempting to say (though I've heard plenty of people go on and on about their theories)....

(Noah Silliman / Unsplash)  We are nearly five months out from our initial quarantine warnings and things are, for a great many people, predictably and laughably bad. The internal itch to return to normal has taken over the rational thinking parts of a great many of the population and so...here we are. I saw a meme the other day that said (paraphrasing) that basically, with the handling of all this, the US is the Florida of the entire planet. I hated to laugh, but it's true. We're appearing as the perfectly idiotic representation of how other countries tend to view us: selfish, ignorant, uncaring. Is anyone really surprised by this? I know I'm not. Disappointed, sure, but definitely not surprised.  To fill up my free time, I've done what others have and found little projects to complete. I continue to go to the gym every day for my allotted hour. But I recently pulled my bass guitar out of storage. It had been out of commission for so long that the protective foam from ...

John Minchillo / AP I've been trying to avoid posting things that are personal to me at the moment - no new mixes, no new writing, no nothing - in an effort to keep the conversation on the protests revolving around the death of George Floyd (and numerous others in the last several months). I've been firmly focused on the events happening in my own downtown area, as well as those of other cities across the country (and the world, at this point!). But I think this is an important thing to speak on, if only because I'm sure others are feeling it too. When I moved into this apartment right before quarantine, I thought I was mentally prepared to be cooped up until August. In fact, I told my coworkers that's how long I thought it would probably last and that I was ready for it. I moved into this new place because it had a (tiny) gym and a pool and teh apartment was spacious enough for my current needs. I expected to be bunkered up with my books and my vinyl and my movi...

My sleep has been absolute garbage for a while now. Previously, there's been a pattern of going to bed at a relatively normal hour (for me) around 10 or 11 and then waking up around 4 or 5 to get an early start on the day the way I tend to do. Recently, however, I'll fall asleep and then be awakened an hour or two later, shaken awake out of some chaotic fever dream, most of which I've forgotten, but this week's have been vivid and memorable for some unknown reason. A single moment in one found me in the middle of an important test, one that I'd studied for, but for which I found myself woefully unprepared. I could feel the immensity of my anxiety even in the dream state. Another moment found me outside on a tarmac, watching this behemoth of a machine composed of rusting metal; copper, steel, brass. All kinds stitched together with what seemed like bad soldering and frayed shoelaces. It was a monstrosity of machine parts, many of which looked like the nose o...

This is pretty new territory for literally all of us. It's mad weird and I don't believe there's a single guidebook for us to follow. Suffice it to say, I am probably handling all of this poorly. Last year did not end great for me. In fact, if I could erase the majority of the second half of the year, I'd be thrilled. Alas, it remains clinging to me because that's how the past works. I am seven months on from my father's passing and I believe he's not been grieved properly. Then again, the more I turn the events of my last visit with him months previous over in my head, it feels like we both knew that was it, that our time had come to a close. I don't know; I can't speak for him, but that's just how it felt. I'm guessing plenty of that has snowballed into this current moment. Professionally, I'm in the best headspace I could possibly be. I continue to enjoy the luxury of working from home right now and my confidence with my posit...

I should start off by saying that clearly the other senses also elicit strong reminiscences of time and place throughout the backlog of our personal timelines. They're all innately tied together. I don't think one is more important than any other, only that we are wired (depending upon our lifelong interests) in favoring one over the others, who all end up playing roles. I don't have any interest in discussing the science of it, only in discussing the very real and tangible (to me) aspect of it. But for me, music is the strongest one. I've played the violin, the bass guitar, become a DJ. I was the cliche of a child who made mixtapes from the radio, recording my favorite songs when they came on and hoping the DJ wouldn't cut off the end with their incessant and unnecessary ramblings. There was a radio show on the hard rock channel in Oklahoma City called "The Seventh Day." Every Sunday night, they'd play seven heavy rock or metal albums in their en...