Planet Baub

Yellow Shorts

Enjoy those ridiculously short yellow shorts you own. It's going to take you twenty years before you'll feel comfortable showing that much of your skin again. And your girlfriend who loves to make fun of them? Hang on to her. She is one of your life roots.



Learn to create your life instead of following it. They weren't kidding when they said you could do anything with your life, but you have to want it. If you are uncertain with who you are and what you want to do, so is the Universe and everyone around you. Fortunately, you figure out pretty quickly who you are, but it takes years to figure out what you want to do.



Learn to meditate. Learn to listen to the good voices that are in your head. They are smart and you have good intuition.



It gets better. You are stronger than you think. You are loved more than you know. Learn to receive it sooner and you will be unstoppable.



Beyond that, everything else is up to you to learn. I'm happy with who we are today, so I don't want you to stray too far from the path that leads us here.



xo

your 36-year-old-self

[Show as slideshow]

One of the best things about hosting my weekly internet show is getting to connect with people from all over the country.  I think people connecting with people is one of the greatest human cravings and when we satisfy that hunger, great things can happen!

As my show was first launching, some mutual fans connected me to a band called The Iveys. They are a three part family unit (one brother and two sisters) out of Texas that have perfected what I like to refer to as “California Country” (think The Eagles or Crosby, Stills and Nash or even the new discs from Ashley Arrison and Josh Kelley). Arlen’s vocals are coated with a perfect layer of Rob Thomas, while the powerful harmonies from Jill and Jessica result in a Lady Antebellum / Fleetwood Mac marriage.

Last Friday, they played their first ever show in Los Angeles at The Mint and I was there front and center, bouncing my head and smiling like Carol Brady watching her kids perform as The Silver Platters. Their set was tight and their harmonies in sync. They’re professional and polished beyond their years and played the room full of drifters the same as if it were a packed house of fans. I keep saying that if I were given my own television talk show, they would be my first choice to hire as my house band. Their musicianship, passion for what they’re doing and positive energy are infectious and is near impossible not to connect with when you see them on stage doing their thing. And isn’t connection what it is all about?

Be sure and check out their website: TheIveysMusic.com and download their CD on iTunes (seriously, it is only $8!). The couple of dollars you spend means a lot to them, so you are supporting an awesome band as well as some well-deserving dreamers, not to mention you get a great new collection of music! You can also listen to my interview with them just below their music video for Back When It Was Our World.

Click here to listen to my recent interview with them:

 

 The Iveys on The Baub Show: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I wanted to play with my new slideshow feature and realized I’m a bit behind in posting some of my photos. These span back since January and looking at them, I think they will count as today’s acknowledged blessings.

[Show as slideshow]

click photos to enlarge

The first time I came to Santa Barbara, I was seventeen years old.
Our neighbors were from there and were going down to visit family and invited me to tag along.
It’s no secret I had a less than stellar home life.
It was my first weekend away where I felt like I was on my own.
Standing tall and proud on my own character and personality.
A very pivotal moment for an uncomfortable teenager.
That weekend was my first real introduction to “gay”.
Nothing happened. I had a girlfriend back home.
Nor was there any offer on the table.
Again, I was seventeen.
But our neighbor’s brother was gay and his home is where we stayed.
He had a friend who had driven up that weekend.
Somehow I went for a drive with him to run some errand.
The grocery store perhaps?
I remember very little about him, other than he was blond and strikingly handsome.
He had grown up and still lived in Malibu.
He had literally grown up IN the Brat Pack.
Hollywood. Cute. Gay. I’m sure I had cartoon eyes.
It was everything I wasn’t yet, but everything I was destined or craved to be.
Since that trip, there has never been a moment in this city that I haven’t felt alive.
Truly alive.
No matter what darkness is falling on my daily life or what mood I was when I left home,
exiting off Carillo Blvd is like plugging into my source.
An electrical recharge.
Everywhere I drive, I am reminded of treasured experiences.
My first Alanis concert with Paddy and dinner at The Palace Grille,
where I drank martinis out of a mason jar
and ate the chocolate souffle from the table next to us… after they left.
Burritos with my friend Danny who now lives in Chicago.
Countless memories with Andrea and Sari that include drinking, paper-mâché and disco.
Renting the four wheel cart with Sari and Jim and making Sari do all of the pedaling.
Dressing Sari and Andrea up as hookers to retrieve the impounded Colt.
Rollerblading and exploring the Mission with Eric and Robbie.
The Go-Go’s, Chris Isaak, Jason Mraz under the stars of The Bowl.
It really is no wonder I consider this one of my favorite cities on earth.
As I was graduating from high school and we were each staking claims in our future,
I would declare to anyone asking,
that I would grow up to live in Santa Barbara on my ranch,
with my two golden retrievers, a horse (notice there was no man or woman in vision)
and I would be writing cover interviews for Rolling Stone magazine.
College didn’t pan out and without a degree in journalism,
I assumed it meant I wasn’t allowed to dream.
As it was, dreaming was never really encouraged
and my mother’s inability to live in reality enforced work ethic above all else
and my sequestered dreams to night when I closed my eyes.
But here I am in 2010.
Healing my fractures.
Taking care of myself.
And as fate would have it, my friend’s Erick and Mary have a beautiful house in Santa Barbara
and have taken a job in New York for a few months.
Here I sit, with my keyboard, their lovely dog Chaz,
a garden full of tomatoes and vegetables, breathing in the fresh Santa Barbara air.
And I here I will sit for the next few weeks, perhaps even months.
I have been taught to count my blessings, and this week,
I am counting them with all of my toes and fingers.
I am writing my first book.
I have a story or two to tell.
It took me awhile to get here, but I am doing exactly what I dreamed.
I am no longer dreaming with my eyes closed.
My eyes are wide open and I am no longer dreaming.
I am living.
Never forget to dream.
It’s the only way to live out loud.
And if there is someone in your life who has never learned or has forgotten to dream, help them out.
Dreams do come true if you hold on to them with enough light in your heart.
In my comment section, I urge you to answer my favorite question:
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?