The Making of “Cayendo Hacia Arriba: El Secreto De La Vida”

Here is the fifth and final and my favorite video from my trip to Argentina as the Cultural Ambassador. Here we have the real Ambassador to Argentina, Vilma Martinez, and the Deputy Ambassador, Jefferson Brown, along with the women who made it all happen, Shannon Farrell, Press Attaché, distributing the books to all the kids in 12 schools. The embassy gave away about 2000 books to kids that have never owned a book.

I love minute 1:44. I would have never imagined that my cultural exchange program would involve cheeseheads. The Argentina children called me: “the man with the head of cheese”. Also notable is minute 0:24 which shows the books coming off the printing press.

The Making of “Cayendo Hacia Arriba: El Secreto De La Vida”

I had the time of my life in Argentina as the Cultural Ambassador with the US Department of State. We worked with 12 schools to create the Spanish edition of “Falling Uphill: The Secret of Life”. I visited some underprivileged schools, an orphanage for HIV+ children, bicycled through Buenos Aires in their city “bicicleteada” with the Secretary of Transportation, and much more. Rather than write 10,000 words to describe this honor, perhaps it is easier to just watch the movies of my trip below.

The first video is about my trip the Chaco and Corrientes, back where I got stuck in the mud so long ago. The second video is about the making of the book at a school for deaf children. The third video was one of my favorite days at an extremely poor community know as “Fort Apache”. The fourth video is about the “bicicleteada”. And the last video is a TV interview partially in English.

“Great job yesterday! The anchors loved you, said only good things in the after show meeting.” Michael Dooley, the producer.

Stay tuned, I will post the spot with the teaser of me riding my bicycle into the studio on live TV. It was a very tight turn and I lost my balance and bounced off the wall. (I like to think I used the wall to my advantage.) It was either that or getting snarled in the curtain.


And for the record, Chicago has an amazing Lake Front trail for bicycling.


Or watch the video clip on their website.

My latest interview. About 30 seconds per year of my life.

Watch the video. Sometimes the clip gets cut off at the end.

I recently had an interview on a local morning TV show. It was an adventure all by itself. Getting a behind the scenes look at a live TV show. I have a new appreciation for the hosts and producers who were real busy bees behind the scenes. Also, I appreciated that during the commercial breaks, Allison and Molly took a few moments before to warm me up, and a few moments after to thank me.

For the record, I had no idea what they were going to ask me, so I was a bit surprised the interview became so philosophical. Also, not sure why the heck I was filmed sideways….

Watch the broadcast click here.

I also met Adam Ciralsky, the NBC News producer with the new show The Wanted and who also worked on 60 Minutes and the Today Show. I gave him my “elevator speech” and he said my book was interesting enough that he’s going to hand deliver it to the Today Show in New York City this week. That could be my lucky break.

Now you can actually see me in action :)
If you don’t see a video above, try this link.

Kudos to the reporter at KION 46, PJ Javaheri, for his professionalism and thoroughness while at the same time being a basically down-to-earth guy, who does all the reporting, writing, filming and editing of multiple stories all in one day, every day.

That being said, a lot of the more meaningful stuff hit the cutting room floor. So this is your super basic, third-grade education, somewhat distorted soundbyte, which just seems to be the nature of the biz selling to the short-attention span in a busy world.