January 13, 2010 Better late in 2008, sometimes behind in 2009, ask me when in 2010! All right amigos, first of all, mil disculpas! Translation: A thousand apologies! I know it’s been since late November that I wrote my last blog, but I hope you will cut me some slack after reading this. 2009 was intense people! I didn’t realize how intense until it was coming to an end. It seemed like everything happened at once, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly accumulated together. Then I realized, it wasn’t the end of 2009 I was feeling…it was the end of the decade! The “00s”…what the hell do we call this decade? It was flashing before my heart and XOL, and what a decade it has been! In fact, I’ve decided that starting my next blog, in February, YES FEBRUARY; I will count down a bit of each year of the first decade for each blog until I hit 2010 in November. Sound good? All right, let’s get back in the moment… I shot my third episode of the season for Extreme Makeover Home Edition on Buffalo, N.Y. We were all apprehensive about going there in November, mostly because of the reputation Buffalo has in terms of the weather. Well, let me tell you something…the weather was glorious! Not just the weather, but also my entire experience on the taping of this show was superb! Here are a couple of pictures from the build. One of them is of me talking about the foundation, and the other is Michael and I rounding up the volunteers to help us makeover the neighborhood. Yes! The neighborhood was made over with a record number of volunteers. By the way, you are all probably going to notice that I’m wearing a lot of hats for all of the photos in this blog. Well, I started letting my hair grow out and it was in a very awkward “in between” phase during this time. Hats made it a lot easier to deal with!

While I was shooting in Buffalo, I had a visit from some friends of MAC’s that live in the area, Cara and John, and their two kids, Kevin and Adam. Here Michael Anthony, his good friend, Cara and the kids hanging outside my trailer.

Buffalo, N.Y. will go down in my personal history as one of the top three experiences I’ve had on the show in my six seasons! Go Buffalo! I’m not only speaking for myself. It truly was such an extraordinary experience in every sense of the word; the family story, the location, THE WEATHER, the builder, David Homes, ASHANTI, my cast mates, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, and of course, Ty Pennington, my executive producer, Brady Connell, and my entire crew! Thanks to all of you for making it so special. Please tune in on January 24th to see one of the most life changing experiences I’ve had. Below is a picture of our builder with Ashanti, Paige and I before we’re about to move in the furniture. After getting back to L.A., I found myself dealing with a VERY busy schedule. First, was the taping of a segment for a show on The Style Network called, “What I hate About Me”. I had the good fortune of working with director, Patrick Higgins, who is an Emmy nominated director I had previously worked with for years on Extreme Makeover Home Edition. It was really nice to work with him again. It made taping the segment effortless! The beautiful and charming hostess, Lisa Arch, was also as welcoming as I could have wished for. I felt as if we had worked together for a long time. Here I am with my friend and director, Patrick Higgins and here is also a shot of what Patrick sees through the monitor, as well as a couple of pictures of me on set with Lisa and our subject for the episode. That next weekend, I decided to take a trip to downtown L.A. and rent a room at The Standard while celebrating The American Music Awards. My good friend, Assaf Blecher, who works for Dick Clark and was one of the producers of the show, was kind enough to not only get my invited to the awards, but also asked me to walk the red carpet with the likes of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Snoop Dog, Shakira, Alicia Keys…I mean I can go on and on. Michael Anthony accompanied me as we drove downtown on Saturday. Saturday night was the American Red Cross pre party at a rooftop club near the Staples Center. Besides doing interviews for ABC and saying hello to some celebrity friends like Candis Cayne, Jai Rodriguez, Jeni Pulos, Taryn Southern, and Julie Moran, it was a great night to hang out with some fantastic friends, including Assaf, Krissy Lindquist, Steve Ponce, and Laura Troy, and a host of others from all over the world! The next afternoon meant time to walk the red carpet. I wore my new pair of Silent Rhythm jeans to complete my “detective” inspired wardrobe! Here I am standing on the red carpet, and again being interviewed at the Coca-Cola lounge by Taryn Southern from ustream.tv and in the back Randee and Brandi from FACEBOOK were hitting me with questions from the fans LIVE as the feed was being transmitted inside the awards and online. Here is the youtube link to check out my interview on the red carpet where I mention the show I just told you about.

Once inside we were treated to an amazing line up, but I have to say that one of my favorite overall performances was of “Empire State of Mind” with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Here is a shot of them on stage through a monitor.

After the show, I rushed into the VIP lounge for a post-show interview for ABC, and then it was time to unwind…work was done, time to play! So a group of us hung out including Steve Ponce and some friends from out of town Bill & Rich Orendorf., and we had some drinks at the VIP party until Michael and I decided we wanted to sit down for a real meal. We went downstairs to Katsu-Ya where we found ourselves surrounded by the likes of Jay-Z, A-Rod, Kate Hudson, Sophia Vergara, and many other celebs. Once the AMA’s were over, I switched gears…Thanksgiving was on its way, but first, it was time to help my nephew, Rodrigo, celebrate his 5th birthday! My brother and sister-in-law threw him a birthday dinner at their house. Here are a couple of shots of him. On in front of his cake and the other with him making sure I understood how old he was now! Thursday of that same week was Thanksgiving. I spent it with my big Mexican family in the San Gabriel Valley. It. was nice to see most of my Tias, Tios and cousins. A couple of days later, I invited Rodrigo and my niece, Monet, to accompany me to the tree lighting ceremony at Hollywood and Highland and a pre-party that was being thrown to raise money for Camp Heartland, an organization that’s created camps for kids that are HIV positive. Paige Hemmis and I were hosts and two of the many celebrities that showed up to support the cause. Here I am with Paige on the red carpet, and then again with Rodrigo and Monet. It was their first time on the red carpet. I think they liked it!

One of the celebrities on hand young comic actor, Noah Munck, better known to my niece and nephew as “Gibby” from the I Carly show on Nickelodeon. He was kind enough to stop and take a picture with my niece, nephew, brother in-law, Chito, and sister in-law, Lisa.

The next week was just enough time to decompress from all of the craziness of the AMA’s and Thanksgiving, and get ready for another show, this time I was going to Gainesville, FL. But before I did, I decided to put up my “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” up. I wasn’t sure if I would do a real tree with such little time home in December, but the Charlie Brown tree? For Sure!

While in Gainesville, we did a “rock and roll” demo. I don’t want to give away too much, but I will tell you that I crashed through a wall dressed as a sort of “Billy Idol” type rocker. Here is a drawing one of the family kids made of what they saw while they were on vacation…

…and this is what I actually looked like! By the way, like my T-Shirt?? My friends at LoveNailTree.com designed this shirt. More on them later in the blog.

Upon my return from Gainesville, I decided to go ahead and get myself a real Christmas tree. It had a monochromatic and simple feeling to it. Spheres of white, silver, grey, pouter, and clear ones in different sizes with lights strung around the tree completed my design. On top, I placed a cardboard star I had picked up at some modern museum, and Michael Anthony poked holes through it with a skewer so pin size light beams shined through! I took the tree down after New Year’s and it never lost any needles!

My New Year’s plans kept going back and forth…New York? Los Angeles? Time’s Square? Home? In the end, I settled for a fairly simple plan of attending a few parties. After a quiet dinner, Michael Anthony and I went over to the home of Landis Smothers and Tim Johnson, as they hosted a small group to get the evening started early. We then all followed Luke Nero (Mr. Black) to HERE lounge in West Hollywood to an event he was hosting. Here is a picture of Landis, Tim, Luke, and the fabulous make-up artist and visual expert, Jo Strutted and another pix of Nadine Nicole Hermann, Brandon Herman, Natasha Borg and yours truly at HERE.

Before the midnight bell chimed, Michael Anthony and I made it over to the studio of fashion designer, Eduardo Lucero, who hosted a small gathering of “who’s who” in the pop-culture Latino world! We ate tamales, danced, drank and rang in the New Year! Feliz Ano Nuevo! Here is Michael Anthony sharing a moment with one of our new Latina friends! Guapa!

It’s a good thing I didn’t stay out all night! In fact, I was in bed before 2:00 a.m.! The next day, I hosted my entire family at my place for some movies, Asian food and cookies for the kids! Here are Rodrigo and Monet enjoying the batter before it goes into the oven, and a picture of me, my brother Ernesto, and Rodrigo making funny faces for the camera!

Before I leave you, I want to tell you about a great new company I’ve stumbled upon called LOVENAILTREE.com. They are the one’s that designed the shirt I’m, wearing in my “Billy Idol” outfit in Gainesville. Tyler and Michelle Madsen are designers that specialize in wonderfully thought provoking, yet beautiful T-shirts and some accessories as well. Their T Shirts are of great quality, very soft, comfortable and NOT expensive. I hope they stay that way because I have a feeling that it’s just a matter of time before they become a more common name! Please go on their website at www.lovetreenail.com and check out their stuff. Buy one shirt and try it out. I bet you’ll want another. I bought the entire line and gave some out as presents over the holidays! We’re actually talking about potentially collaborating on a design. I’ll keep you posted! Well, that was a lot to catch up on! I continue to wish everyone health, happiness and prosperity in 2010! Until February… Salud! Eduardo

November 25, 2009 One-Year Anniversary Blog! Well my friends, November 25th marks my one-year anniversary blogging from www.EduardoXOL.com. I had previously been keeping a Life and Style blog for AOL Latino (for a peek go to http://www.aollatinoblog.com/category/life-and-style) but decided to start my own blog a year ago on my website and your support has been fantastic. I get e-mails daily from all over the world! As fall has spread its leaves over the country, it seems that I have been following. But before fall hit NYC I had a chance to visit The High Line, a beautiful exterior landscaped garden on top of the old abandoned Westside Hwy. Now, this visit took place at the same time as the U.S. Open, but I neglected to mention this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Here I am below talking a leisurely walk through the park. It was such a beautiful day! Rarely do I have the chance to “stop and smell the flowers” as I so often preach, but on this day, I stopped, perched myself on a bench and just sat and watched the NY skyline, the myriad of people walking by speaking several languages I couldn’t understand, and smelling some flowers, but mostly grasses, which, by the way, I love! For those of you that love photography, I have a friend, Robert Rodriguez jr., who is a wonderful photographer specializing in nature scapes. He lives in upstate NY and just put out his calendar for 2010. I have one of his photos in my house and just received his calendar in the mail. To find out how you can get a copy of his calendar or for more information on his work, please go to www.robertrodriguezjr.com On the way to one of my last shoots for Extreme Makeover Home Edition, I decided to take Robert’s inspiration and take some pictures of the fall foliage myself. I had flown from Los Angeles to NYC, and then took the trail to Albany to meet up with Michael Anthony who offered to drive me from Albany to New Hampshire and see the scenery on the way. It was a beautiful road trip as you can see by the picture I took below! We made a few stops on the way, including a lunch in Bennington, VT, where there was an exhibition of moose that local artist’s had worked on. Although I was hoping to see a real moose during my road trip, this is the best that I could do. After a few hours of driving and seeing beautiful scenery, I arrived to the destination of the next makeover…Lyme, New Hampshire. We were in the middle of a secluded valley surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I have scene in this country. For most of the week, we had no cell phone service and no Internet on set. Despite our secluded location, we still had plenty of fans and volunteers show up as you can see here. During this build, Paige Hemmis and I had a chance to visit a farm/museum where the caretakers and owners lived and dressed as they did several hundred years ago! Here is a picture of Paige and I in the dining room of the museum with the staff that had made us a wonderful meal with all homegrown ingredients! Just a few minutes before, Paige and I were dressed the same way. To see us living “on the prairie” be sure to tune-in to the show, which is scheduled to air in December on ABC. By the time the family came home, the leaves had turned more and more. Shades of orange and red appeared each day! Here I am with Paige and Michael greeting the family as a canopy of multi-colored leaves surrounds us!

After the show in New Hampshire, Michael Anthony and I travel back to Albany to meet with some of his family and friends. Here we are with his cousins, Cherity, Rose, and Danielle at a bar in Albany.

Just a few days back after getting back to Los Angeles, Paige, Michael, my friend and neighbor Herb and I went to a baby shower for our god friend Trevi, who is about to give birth to a baby boy. But it was a double celebration. Not only was it a baby shower, but also it was Trevi’s birthday! Happy birthday Trevi!! A few days later, it was time to celebrate Halloween. My neighbor, Herb, Michael Anthony and I threw an impromptu Halloween party. Like I often do, I went through my phone and text friends asking them to stop by before we made our way to the famous Halloween parade on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Check out Herb as the Lucky Charm’s leprechaun, Michael Anthony as a samurai, and some crazy friends dressed as…well, crazy friends, of course!

It was a very fun and crazy night. Here I am dressed as a pseudo 1940’s Mexican gangster pretending to interview Assaf Blecher with my disco microphone. I know…it makes no sense at all, but made for a lot of fun!

One of the best costumes was Krissy as “The Roses Lady”. For those of you that live in, or have ever visited West Hollywood, you all know whom I’m talking about! She is this very charismatic Central American woman who sells roses on the streets and in the restaurants and clubs in the area of Robertson and Santa Monica Blvd. She is rumored to have a small fortune from selling her famous roses, especially the white ones, but how much of that is truth and how much is urban legend remains to be seen. They funny thing is that Krissy actually sold a bunch of the roses throughout the night! Hilarious! Thanks to all of you for supporting and reading my blog throughout this past year! The rest of 2009 and 2010 will prove to be more eventful for sure. Stay tuned for my next blog! Salud! Eduardo

November 5, 2009 As autumn approached, so did a lot of my friends' birthdays and, of course, birthday parties!  One of the fantastic parties I was invited to was given for my good friend, and producer, Herb Ankrom.  The party was co-hosted by Herb’s business partner and good friend, Denise Cramsey, who is also a television producer.  It was held at the beautiful home of producer Stuart Krasnow who produces television as well!  What can I say, we TV people stick together!  Here is a picture of Herb with Denise and her boyfriend, director Scott Farquharson.

I was lucky to spend some time with some of my favorite guests at the party including Herb’s mom, Marge, who flew in from Florida.  Doesn’t she look stunning?  Herb requested formal attire for his party.  Since it is so rare these days to attend formal events, it was really fun to dress up and see what everyone else was wearing. St. Felix, a newly discovered restaurant of mine in West Hollywood located on the corner of Santa Monica & Robertson, hosted the food.  If you ever find yourself in the WEHO area, I recommend you try it out.  Great food, a great bar, and it’s charming and intimate.   Celebrity guests included good friends Vanessa Minnillo from True Beauty, Paige Hemmis from Extreme Makeover Home Edition and producer Michael Dicarlo to name a few.  As you can see, it was a room filled with beautiful people that Herb loves.

O.N.E (One Natural Experience) is a juice company that provided the drinks for Herb’s event.  They are also working with my non-profit organization, The ALUMI Media Group. They were also kind enough to provide beverages to the next birthday party I attended for my project manager Krissy Lindquist & my good friend, and producer, Assaf Blecher. Here I am in a photo with the girls from O.N.E. at Krissy and Assaf’s event.

My great friend, entertainment attorney David Colden, lent us the use of his gorgeous estate in Bel Air for Krissy and Assaf’s party.  They chose to have a casual barbeque style party.  Friends and co-workers were spread out as far as the eye could see. Below are several photos of me with Krissy and Assaf and some of their special guests including Chuy from the Chelsea Lately Show, Todd Krim, President of Reality Cares, and, of course, a few of our Extreme Makeover Home Edition family. A poolside performance by Vixen Glitterati made everyone smile and music by DJ Manny Patel got everyone’s groove going.  Carnival carts served up hot dogs, hamburgers and snow cones and helped create a fun day to celebrate two friends.

When I get to stay home for a while, I love to go out and about in L.A. to catch up with friends I have missed on the road. In terms of nightlife, I have decided to reserve 2 nights for some really interesting events.  Monday nights mean Candis Cayne’s one-woman show at The Abbey, which gets going around 10:00 p.m.   She works the stage while with her boyfriend of 7 years, DJ Marco, spins some progressive music throughout the night.

On Tuesday night, my friend Luke Nero promotes a new event from New York City called Mr. Black at Bardot located at Hollywood & Vine.  With its edgy music, reoccurring themes, and its intriguing guests, it has proven to be a new staple on my social calendar. Here I am with the crew from The Factory, which include promoter Luke Nero, director Landis Smithers, and image guru, Jo Strettel.

It has not been all play recently, although the next few work events I am about to tell you about may make it seem that way. My project manager Krissy Lindquist and I flew out to New York as guests of the U.S. OPEN for a special ceremony in recognition of the late tennis legend, Pancho Gonzalez. The event was emcee’d by Benjamin Bratt and Jimmy Smitts.

Additional dignitaries included Tony Plana from Ugly Betty, Jill Hennessy from Crossing Jordan and a few others.  Jill Hennessey had a chance to tell me about her new music project called Ghosts In My Head.  Check her out online at www.jillhennessy.com.

Now I have NEVER been to a tennis match before in my life so I consider myself exceptionally fortunate to have experienced my first match in a VIP box watching Andy Roddick lose in an upset to John Isner in the company of the above-mentioned celebrities. It was a great night of tennis, a great time meeting new friends, and an honor to to pay tribute to a Latin pioneer such as Pancho Gonzalez. Upon my return from New York, I was off to Las Vegas to shoot a project for The Factory. The project I was working on involved myself and an eclectic group of creative personalities including my friend and director Landis Smithers, makeup artist Jo Strettel, and a dear and respected colleague, hairstylist to the stars Serena Radaelli, and her assistant Marco. Our goal?  To create a multi-media presentation for The Palms resort.  Together we shot 18 hours a day for 3 days and made our way through drama, hysteria, creativity, art, and hopefully some good reality television. Stay tuned !

Back in Los Angeles it was the start of a new season, Award Show season.  I attended the 2009 NCLR ALMA Awards with Michael Anthony from New York. The awards were held on the UCLA campus.

I have been to UCLA only a handful of times since I attended college there.  The red carpet kept me very busy for over an hour as you can see by the picture of me getting interviewed.

Eva Longoria Parker and George Lopez hosted the awards. There were some amazing performances by Pitbull, Shakira, and David Archuletta but I have to tell you that my favorite performer was Nelly Furtado. She performed her new single from her Spanish language debut album, Mi Plan.   The Canadian born singer of Portuguese decent  performed the song in perfect Spanish with a perfect accent.   Flawless!

Jeans have come and gone.  In the last 5-10 years it seems like we’ve seen an over abundance of jean designs.  I’ve tried almost all of them out.   Very few have satisfied me the in the same way good old Levi’s have back when I was in high school.  Very few, that is, except for my recent discovery of  Silent Rhythm Jeans!  They are well made, comfortable, stylish, but not too trendy and I believe that they will stand the test of time.  (www.silentrhythmjeans.com)  Check out their website and see for yourself and check me out wearing them on the set of Extreme Makeover in New Hampshire.

Finally, if you haven’t read my note on The Alumi Media Group, my non-profit organization, please take the time to do so.  It’s an important note about a really important cause that is dear to my heart! Salud, Eduardo

September 24, 2009

August 19, 2009

I am going to start off my blog again this month with another great experience I had working on my DIRECTV campaign. This time DIRECTV flew me down to Monterrey, Mexico where I had the opportunity to visit the SITEL call center which is handling the calls for my new campaign. I was able to greet all the teams who are supporting the campaign, understand how their operations work, and be able to take a minute with them and hear a little bit about their stories and experiences. Mayris Maldonado, Sr. Manager of the call center for DIRECTV, Alex Avila, Director of Operations, and Felipe Martinez, Sr. Coach, gave me a grand tour of the entire call center to show me how the campaign is managed once the calls come in.

When I walked through the center, the managers showed me where I would be settling to sign autographs, take pictures, and greet all of the team members.  There was an entire wall covered with posters of the ad that had my face on it.

Truth be told, it was a little weird to see my face plastered everywhere, but I was flattered that the young team members themselves chose to do this for me.  Here is a picture of me in front of the wall with my project manager Krissy Lindquist.

While I was greeting the team members, something really funny happened…3 of the girls memorized one of my commercials and they got up in front of me and performed it! It was really funny, entertaining and was also a huge compliment!  Here I am with the three girls along with some of my other new call center friends.

DIRECTV decided to reward the top customer service reps on my campaign with my book, “Home Sense”.  I was then able to sign my book for them on my visit. There are a total of about 800 young people working at the center.  They are all students of the local university and get class credit as well as a salary for working there.  Being that the Mexican culture is so warm and affectionate, I was greeted by most of these young people with a hug!  I wish this was commonplace everywhere.  Here I am with all of the winners. After a full day at the office the senior managers invited me out for dinner to a Japanese/French Fusion Restaurant called Kitchone.   The managers, as well as some of the senior team members, treated me to a night of great food, drinks and wonderful conversation!

One of my favorite dishes was crab served on a bed of chunks of sweet watermelon marinated in a lime juice sauce.   Different and delicious!

Now, I am going to change subjects and take a step back in time here for a moment as I go through some events that took place this summer.  Since before the 2008 elections I have been attending event after event in support of the NO ON PROP 8 campaign that brought so much national attention to California. For those of you who are not familiar with it, proposition 8 was a proposition written in California banning marriage equality for in the state. Unfortunately this proposition DID pass, but the fight to tell the story of what has become the civil rights movement of this generation is not over. It is important to get the message out there.

There were several rallies held on the passing of PROP 8 and the decision of the State Supreme Court to uphold proposition 8 although it is thought to be unconstitutional. I was proud to be a part of not only several rallies and charity events, but also several campaigns that have now become a staple in the fight for marriage equality. Here I am in a photo with my friend Assaf Blecher , who is a producer at Dick Clark Productions.  Just in case anyone is wondering, no, we’re not getting married! LOL!

After the rally was over we walked to The Abbey Food and Bar where my friend Carra and her brother were raising money for a project that they are working on called Prop8 Films.  This charity is dedicated to uncovering the truth behind the passage of Proposition 8 in the November 2008 election and telling the stories of those affected by it in an objective documentary that will cover all sides of the story. Check out their website and get more information on events near you and how you can help at www.prop8films.org.  Here is a photo of Myself, Carra and her brother at the event.

In my most recent support of PROP 8 I did a photo shoot for the NOH8 campaign with photographer Adam Bouska. He started this campaign with portraits of everyday Californians who supported marriage equality and soon his campaign grew to involve celebrities, politicians, athletes, and even law enforcement figures wanting to make a statement. The photos feature the subjects with duct tape over their mouths symbolizing their voices not being heard.  “NOH8” is painted in black and red paint on their cheeks in protest of the proposition. If you go to www.noh8campaign.com you will be able to see all the photos that have been taken so far and will be able to submit your own. Here is my NOH8 campaign photo.

I believe that most of the controversy surrounding marriage equality is religiously based, but the true issue has much more to do with civil rights than with religion.  I ask all of you, regardless of your political or religious beliefs to take a step back and really ask yourselves this question:  Does allowing all people to marry, regardless of gender, really have any negative effect on our lives?  Even my parents who are liberal to moderate Catholics in their upbringing admit they have trouble with what the definition of marriage should be, but aside from that they believe that allowing everyone to marry would not have a negative effect on their lives.

For now, I leave you as I sit in the fields of Wisconsin, building another home for the Huber family as I finish taping my first show of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Season seven!

Salud,
Eduardo.

July 14, 2009

Sorry it has been such a long time since my last blog! It’s been a very crazy summer. Some of you may have seen my ads for DIRECTV MAS. I was in Miami at the beginning of the summer to shoot the campaign. I had the chance to relax the day before at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. This is the first time I've stayed there. The customer service is some of the best I’ve ever experienced. In terms of design, it isn’t what I usually would choose, but that’s just preference. The bed was blissful and the bathroom large with a beautiful spa tub. When it comes to staying in a hotel, these two elements are the most important! Here is what my view was like from the beautiful hotel room I stayed in.

The crew I worked with was amazing and very professional and represented several Hispanic countries including, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Spain. I may be forgetting a few of them! We shot a series of commercials, stills and shots that will also be used for the Internet specifically for the DIRECTV MAS package focused on the Hispanic market.

I was narrating scenes about the opportunities DIRECTV MAS is offering when their customers are planning on moving so there were three other actors I was working with representing Mom, Dad and their daughter. You can see the family sitting behind me in the shot below and here is a picture of the adorable daughter named Gina. She was so professional to work with! I love working with kids!

After the shoot, we were all treated to a delicious meal at La Dorada in Coral Gables. It’s a restaurant that specializes in authentic Spanish food, specifically seafood. John De Armas, the VP of World Directv, was a gracious host and ordered several courses of the restaurant’s specialties including their fish cooked in rock salt. Delicious! After dinner we enjoyed a variety of desserts including Crème Brulee, and pastry puffs filled with vanilla ice cream covered with a chocolate sauce! Here I am sitting with John, to my left, and the crew from the shoot! Gracias a todos!

The day after the shoot, I had a chance to hang out with friends. My good friend, Richard Perez Feria co-hosted a dinner at the beautiful home of Michael Valdes. Here are some pictures from the dinner party.

As soon as I arrived back to Los Angeles, I was asked to make an appearance at an event DIRECTV had produced to help raise money for The East Los Angeles Classic Theatre, an organization I used to teach with. Thanks to my experience with ECT, I started my own non-profit organization, The ALUMI Media group a few years later. More to come on ALUMI and our national growth soon!

Well, as life would have it, it would only be a matter of a few weeks before I returned to Miami to make an appearance at an event for the Miami based organization, Amigos for Kids. Here I am with good friend, Louis Aguirre and a host of others!

I promise not to be such a stranger and blog you all soon! Hope you are all having a fantastic summer!

Salud!

Eduardo

May 2, 2009

Well, just when I thought being on hiatus would mean a lot of free time to “hang out”, well, not a lot, but definitely some. I was wrong. It’s not been ALL work and no play, but it definitely seems like a lot came at me at once right when I went on my hiatus from Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

I recently took a trip to the Casa de Campo resort in La Romana, a town located on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic. The reason? I was invited to attend the wedding of my manager, Giancarlo Chersich to the beautiful and talented Dominican born actress and spokesperson, Celines Toribio. I’ll come back to that in a second.

I decided to fly from NYC and take advantage of taking a few days of in upstate New York with Michael Anthony, who would be accompanying me to the wedding. I flew from L.A. to Albany with a stop in NYC and spent a couple of days relaxing upstate with some friends, including Hazel, Michael Anthony’s adorable bulldog. After just two days, we took the train from Albany to NYC. I love taking the train, especially since flying in a plane works my nerves! Can you believe I don’t like to fly with the kind of job I have? I know…ridiculous!

Anyway, once in NYC I stayed the night at my usual home away from home, The Chambers hotel on 56th between 5th and 6th. To my surprise, the restaurant, TOWN, that also provides the hotel with room service, had recently been closed due to the economy, no doubt! Truth be told, we would be leaving for the D.R. very early the next morning, but I would be returning to NYC for a few days after our Caribbean trip. I wasn’t sure I would be able to deal with not having room service, even at The Chambers, which has been my home away from home in NYC for a few years now. So that night we went to dinner to Hells Kitchen, a Latin flavored restaurant in Hells Kitchen, of course! Here is a picture of Michael Anthony and I with our good friend Tracy Paurowski.

So the next day, Thursday, we traveled through Miami to La Romana, also known as paradise. The next two days were spent relaxing by the pool, at the beach, visiting the local and private marina, and touring through town in the golf carts provided by the hotel for all guests. Check out some of the pictures below. It was incredibly beautiful, the people were very friendly, and customer service was amazing!

While I was enjoying some rest and relaxation, I took the time to read “Life with my sister Madonna”, written by Madonna’s brother, and a friend of mine, Christopher Ciccone. I enjoyed reading the book as it really gave an insight on what it would be like to be the brother of someone as famous as Madonna. It really is outside the realm of most our lives and I highly recommend it. I found it to be intimate and sensitive and as those of us who have close relationships with our siblings know, there are highs and lows, but also being someone who had the luxury of having a sister as a best friend and artistic collaborator, the combination can be extremely complicated. Add in a large dose of fame and fortune and, well read for yourself!

The wedding on Saturday was absolutely beautiful, but I wasn’t able to take photos, as the couple gave exclusive photo rights to several Hispanic news media. There were quite a few celebrities and A LOT of press. I’m sure some of you read about it soon afterwards. Here is one photo that has been circulating the Internet as they left the beautiful church.

To view more pictures of the wedding, go to:
http://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/articles/0,22490,1892444,00.htmlhttp://www.peopleenespanol.com/pespanol/galleries/0,22491,1892443,00.html
I can’t lie! The day after the wedding was a difficult one to get up to! Knowing my trip to paradise was over, and feeling the effects of having had a great time, including one too many rum and cokes, I forced myself back on a plane and back to the U.S. I stayed in NYC for a few days before I returned to Los Angeles, was able to attend a few business meetings, and also made time to plan a cocktail party for friends in NYC I don’t get to see very often. I got on my phone and texted the group of friends I have in NYC and gave a last minute invitation to see who could join me for a drink the night before I left. I was pleasantly surprised that a nice group of friends showed up to the lounge of The Royalton Hotel, where I stayed on my last few nights. Here are my friends who, by the way with the exception of two who had met once before, nobody knew each other! You know, this kind of situation can sometimes be awkward, but not this time. Everyone got along really well and I had a wonderful time catching up with some really great people! In the group picture below from left to right are Tanya Niederhoff, Avery Schlicher, Greg Pace and Mark Polinski.

Upon my return to L.A., there was no time to rest. The next day I had a pre-production meeting for a pilot I was to shoot two days later for a Spanish language talk show called, “La Voz”, which means “The Voice” in English. That night I went to a book signing at Barnes and Noble at The Grove in L.A. for the release of my good friend Tracy Hutson’s book, “Feathering The Nest”. Her book is an earth friendly guide to decorating your baby’s room. Here I am with Tracy and her husband, actor, Barry Watson of ABC’s “Samantha Who?”

The next two days were long and busy, but very productive. Here are some pictures of the shoot for La Voz where I host alongside, Nancy Agosto and Paty Lopez. The crew was absolutely amazing to work with.

Speaking of the beautiful Patty Lopez, who I adore, we had to rush her out at the end of the shoot to participate in a fashion show in Long Beach for the extremely talented designer, and good friend of mine, Eduardo Lucero. Although I wasn’t able to attend the fashion show, Gaby Tamayo, publicist extraordinaire reported back to me and said it was flawless! Check Patty out in the black lace dress! Va va va voom! Congratulations Eduardo!

Once the weekend rolled around, I was exhausted. I spent what was left of it finally unpacking and getting settled again at home. The next week’s focus would be spent on research work for a couple of environmental projects I’m working on in the office, but for the moment, it’s a secret. Hopefully I’ll be able to share them with you on my next blog. So for now, everyone take care of yourselves and try not to get too freaked out about this crazy Swine flu situation. I sincerely hope that the next time I blog, I won’t have to talk about it.

SALUD!
Eduardo

April 15, 2009

I am finally back in Los Angeles and on hiatus after finishing season six strong in Las Vegas. Las Vegas was a blast. I mean it is “Vegas” after all. We helped a family that had 2 little 3 year old girls with Combined Immune Deficiency Disease (CIDD) and were living in a home that threatened their lives. This is story is very similar to the story of the “Boy in the Plastic Bubble”, which means that a even a simple cold can turn into a life threatening lung infection. As usual, we did our best to work with the community to make this house a home for these little girls and, as usual, the community outpouring was unbelievable. Thank you Las Vegas!!

For those of you that watch Extreme Makeover regularly, we had a special visit from someone you might remember from last season’s show in Kentucky, Patrick Henry Hughes. By coincidence, Patrick and his family were in Las Vegas celebrating his 21st birthday. Patrick was born without eyes and with the physical challenge of his arms and legs being short, which confines him to a wheelchair most of the time, but that doesn’t keep him from rocking in the marching band thanks to the help of his dad who marches with him pushing his wheelchair. Patrick is an amazing musical prodigy and an accomplished pianist, not to mention an all around amazing human being! I am blessed and honored to know him! To learn more about Patrick, go to www.PatrickHenryHughes.com

Joshua Zilm, a good friend of mine, and one of the Assistant Director’s on the show, is getting married. What better place for us all to celebrate than in Las Vegas. So we threw him a bachelor party at Stoney’s Rockin' Country!! As you can see, we had a blast. I wish him and his wife to be much happiness!

After Las Vegas, it was time to say goodbye to Season 6 and start enjoying my hiatus. I have a lot of different projects that I am constantly working on with my company, Eduardo Xol Inc. with the www.fifteena.com brand, and with my newly formed non-profit organization www.AlumiMediaGroup.com as well. Right now, I am also in pre-production for a special segment on EXTRA I will be doing with Mario Lopez. In order to get this project, done I recruited the help of Nancy Hadley (www.nancyhadley.com) the former Art Director and muralist for Extreme Makeover and Michal Gregus (www.TheTaskPros.com)from The Task Pros, but that is the only hint I can give right now! Keep a watch for it coming soon!

One of the first things on my list when I got home was to celebrate the birthday of my very good friend and co-star of EMHE, the fabulous and beautiful Paige Hemmis. (www.PaigeHemmis.com) She threw her party at The Abbey in West Hollywood and it was a great time to catch up with her as well as some old friends who used to work on the show.

A few days later, I had a reunion with some of my class mates from the Schurr High School choral and drama department. This is one of those things that resulted from good use of Facebook. We all found each other on Facebook and organized our own reunion at Stone Fire Pizza in Los Angeles. I can’t believe how much fun it was catching up with everyone I had not seen in so long. We basically just sat around eating and drinking and catching up. Up until now, I have missed all of my high school reunions, so I had not seen some of these people in…I’ll let you guess how many years! ; )

My non-profit organization, The ALUMI Media Group, just wrapped it’s Winter session at Mannuel Arts High School and Ana Olivo my co-founder and program director is gearing up for our end of the session performance. I’m sure the students are going to do a fantastic job! Good luck to you all! I’m am very proud to work with you!

Lastly, I was recently invited to an interesting dinner at the home of Landis Smithers and Tim Johnson. The guests were told that there was a specific reasons why we were all invited to dinner, but the reason, would not unfold itself until the actual dinner took place. Instead of going into this here, I invite you to read about the latest project I will be working on by tuning into Landis’ blog at: http://thetwodogblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/weapons-project-begins.html

Well, I’m off traveling…for fun this time! Blog you soon!
Till Next Time
Salud
Eduardo

March 30, 2009

For those of you that do not know, I recently formed a Non – Profit organization called the ALUMI Media Group. The goal of our non-profit is to use media arts in conjunction with alternative learning methods to promote individual self-esteem by teaching students the most effective ways to teach themselves.  You can visit our website at www.alumimediagroup.com to find out more or if you want to help.

To start off our fundraising efforts we decided to hold our first star studded event, in conjunction with my birthday.  Yes, I know my birthday was in February, but it was a good excuse for me to get my friends to come! The venue was the Gibson Guitar showroom in Beverly Hills. The walls of the showroom are filled with Gibson Guitars and there are several pianos scattered around the floor previously owned by Liberacci and other famous artists. The stage is where some of the best artists in the world have come to perform for Gibson. I cannot say enough about the space and our friend Kasey Hodges who helped us get it all together!  We had a fun program ready for the night after a few months of hard work and quick planning.

First we had celebrity arrivals with pictures and interviews.  Here is where I give much credit to my publicist and friend, Annie Jeeves of Fifteen Minutes, for holding down all of the craziness of the celebrities walking through the doors.  I have not smiled that much in a long time!! You can see more pictures on Getty Images, Wire Images, FilmMagic, and other photo sites by Googling ALUMI MEDIA GROUP. I was lucky to have a bunch of my Extreme Makeover crew come to support like Paul Dimeo, Tracy Hutson, Tanya McQueen, and Rib Hilis. Many good friends came as well like Candis Cayne, Jai Rodriguez, Molly Harper, Eduardo Lucero, Brian Peeler, Gregory Cruz, Elizabeth Keener Ross the Intern, Reichen, and others.  You will have to take a minute to look at all the photos below and online, as I cannot even keep straight all the people that I took pictures with that came to support my non-profit.  It was humbling.

Performances started with Helios Jive, a great band that is also featured on the CD in my book Extreme Entertaining Made Simple.  Next the crowd got a dose of some comedic genius by Miss Molly Harper, followed up by two members of the band Krimzen, and then closing the night with an acoustic set by Hodges. I highly recommend checking them all out online. I thank them so much for donating their music with everyone that evening.

Since the event was also celebrating my birthday, my good friend, John Applegate, threw me a VIP after party with some of my closest friends in the backroom of the club Eleven. It was above and beyond fantastic and I had an amazing night!

At the end of this great evening, thanks to the sale of tickets at the door, raffle items, silent auction items and donations, we raised enough money to cover giving away another six week course for a class of students that would benefit from our program.

I want to thank everyone who supported me and The ALUMI Media Group, especially our sponsors for the event who made it all possible: O.N.E (One Natural Experience Juices), 360 Vodka, San Antonio Winery, Edible Arrangements, Mi Piace, Southern Girl Desserts, and Bestpoke Bouquets! Thank You so much and I hope to see you at the next one.

A special thanks to my ALUMI team, Ana Olivo and Richard Morales, to my XOL: team, Desiree and Jason, to all of the volunteers, some of whom I had not met until that night, and a very special thanks to Krissy Lindquist who worked so very hard to bring this event to light.  It means a lot to me and even more to the kids that will benefit from this great event.  Well, the next time I write to you I will have returned from my last show of the season in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Until then, keep celebrating life, no matter what the circumstances!

Salud!

Eduardo!

March 16, 2009

Sorry it has taken me sooooo long to write this next blog.  A lot has gone on since I wrote last time, as usual, so I will begin by telling you about my shoots in Tucson, Arizona and Montgomery, Alabama.

Arizona was great! The weather was beautiful, the neighborhood was picturesque, and the community was very helpful, and OH, did I mention the cactus’s were really tall! 

Arizona was a crazy build at times.  We started it off with a “design demolition” with “construction couture” in honor of one of the young girls in the family that wants to be a designer.  We had a fashion show creating our couture using any construction and home items we could find to make our glamorous outfits.

I know that many times on the show we say that we are behind schedule and that we have to make up the time somehow, but it really was the case a lot of the time in Arizona. At one point, we were almost an entire day behind!  But in the end, everyone came out to help us get the job done.  Our biggest challenge was the fact that Arizona was playing in the super bowl, so we put big screen TV’s up in the middle of the street and around the house and threw a block party.  We blasted the sound so that everyone helping wouldn’t miss out on the big game with their hometown team. At the end of the day everything came together and we were able to bring the family home, unfortunately, after a really close game, Arizona didn’t win.

Once we were caught up, I found a little time to take a ride on the Segue!  Have any of you tried one?  The newer models, like the one I’m on in the picture below, are extremely intuitive!  Once I got the hang of it, I was giving lessons to the crew!

After Arizona, I was able to come home and see some friends and enjoy being home.  The last couple of shows only had a few days off between them, and that can be difficult, especially when trying to keep up with good friends! One of my friends and respected producer, Matthew Vafiadis, who had recently moved back to L.A. after being in NYC for nearly a year, moved into a great loft in downtown L.A. and decided to have a housewarming party.  A group of us got together and ate and drank and then went walking around downtown visiting some local pubs and getting a sense of how much downtown L.A. is evolving!

Just a few days after my visit downtown, it was time to go on the road once again but this time I was heading to Montgomery, Alabama and my birthday would be taking place while I was on this show.  I have to thank everyone on the crew, everyone in Montgomery, and everyone who sent me so many birthday well wishes and cakes! I have never had so many birthday cakes before ever for my birthday!  I had a total of six cakes and my birthday lasted three weeks!  Ridiculous and so much fun!!  I spent my actual birthday with some special people from my life and from the show including, Michael Anthony, Tracy Hutson, Steve Ponce, Kyle Spivey, and the rest of the EMHE crew who made it really special for me. I thank all of you!

A while back, while I was still writing my blog for AOL, I met a guy in a gifting lounge that gave me these wonderful blankets that folded up into backpacks for my niece and nephew.  They are called Zoobies! (www.zoobies.com) They are like stuffed animals but better and are great for traveling. It’s like a toy, a blanket, and a pillow all in one and my niece and nephew love them!  If you have children and know someone who does, these are wonderful and fun gifts!  Thank you XXXXX.

Now, I know that the recession is hitting everyone hard and we are all cutting back on everything, but, don’t let it keep you from celebrating life!  Put aside one day a week and organize a potluck or game night with your closest friends!  You’ll save money by not going out and you’ll have a good time!

Well, until my next blog, which I promise will be coming soon…

Salud!
Eduardo

February 12, 2009

2009 has started off with a bang for sure! I was very fortunate to ring in the New Year with close friends at The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood. Everyone was celebrating the change and hope that was coming in the New Year it was electric!

Above are some pictures of us right before we headed out for the night. You may recognize my good friend Paige Hemmis who is also a designer on Extreme with me!

Next in the New Year it was time to return to work from the long Holiday break. Fortunately for me I was heading to El Paso, TX! I was very excited for this trip because recently I just threw a dream Quinceanera for a deserving 15 year old girl. Sydny Gonzales became Miss 15A 2008 and the face of my new brand, 15A! I already new it was going to be a great community because of all the vendors that had come together for me previously and donated their services to make Sydny’s dream Quinceanera a reality. So needless to say not only was I excited to see Sydny and all of the vendors that had helped but excited they wanted to help on our Extreme project too.

Sydny goes to a school that focuses on Media and I was happy to have her, her mom and stepdad, as well as some of her friends and classmates come to set and let them see how EMHE all works. Below we are on set during demo and making a pit stop to say hello to Paul Dimeo.

The vendors stopped by as well for a set tour and not only did they visit but they also donated again. Liza and Robert from Flowers by Liza did the flowers for the Master Bath I was working on, Alfred of PTL Video was shooting our 15A meets Extreme Makeover Adventure, while Pablo of JukeBox Entertainment was hooking us up with Music for the wrap party and bringing us burritos. Nora from Heavenly Wedding and Events was kind enough to help out before we got there suggesting some vendors to work with and Rebecca at City Limousine donated the limo to bring the family home in. Of course the girls from the British Ballet Academy came as well and they kept us on our toes. Here they are taking over set with their VIP access. I had a lot of fun being a part of this community with them.

On a side note Sydny and I are going to be looking for Miss 15A 2009 so if you know anyone you think deserves this opportunity make sure to visit www.fifteena.com and nominate them.

The family we were helping in El Paso would use their money to make and bring food and necessities over the border to Juarez, Mexico to those who needed it more. So we not only built them a house but also collected food to help in their efforts. I even visited a local school where the students had a pep rally and collected food for the family. I was proud to be a part of it!

El Paso was very good to me. I cannot thank enough all who came to visit me on set and made me feel like I was at home. The entire El Paso community was something like I had never before experienced on this show and I thank them for all their support to Extreme’s efforts and for supporting me as well.

Mucho Gracias!
Salud,
Eduardo

December 22, 2008

I have been very fortunate in my life to have been a part of some wonderful groups and charities and I want to tell you about one of them. I was recently invited to La Mirada, CA to see the “New Kids” show for the 2008 class of The Young Americans. I was a part of the Young Americans Class of 1982-1986.

The Young Americans® were founded almost 50 years ago in Hollywood, CA. For all of these years their purpose has remained the same: To provide our talented Young American student performers (18-23 years of age) with education in music, dance, performance and teaching. To use this training, and the good will and optimism of these young people to support music in schools and its inherent benefits through conducting International Music Outreach Workshops in educational facilities of all types throughout the world. The Young Americans consists of 200 members from over 37 states and seven countries around the world. Among its 3000+ alumni are professionals in music education, fine arts, motion pictures, television, radio, Broadway and recording.

They were very gracious and sent a limo for me and I invited some of my friends to come along to witness something that has been such an influence and big part of my life growing up till now.

Here I am with my good friends Assaf Blecher who works at Dick Clark Productions and Krissy Lindquist. In the other picture I am with one of my oldest friend Richard Morales who works in PR for Blueprint Brands.

Before entering the theatre I ran into one of my old Young American classmates Mark Walhberg who you may know as a host of several reality shows.

I have to say the New Kids Show of 2008 was spectacular. Each performer was able to shine in their own way taking us on a Journey through the United States of America and all over the world with songs from their native countries. Then came performances out of Rent, The Lion King, Jersey Boys, Singing in the Rain, Grease, 42nd Street, Hairspray with tributes to The Beatles and iconic women in Music, and so on and so …the singing, the dancing, all of it was really unbelievable.

After a roaring applause it was time to head back home after what was a most enjoyable evening. Susan Johnson from the Board of Directors and Director of Young Americans Bill Brawley walked me out and I have to thank them again for the invitation. It was wonderful to be able to revisit something so significant in my life.

I really love entertaining! Which may seem a little obvious since I just released my second book, EXTREME ENTERTAINING MADE SIMPLE, but I really do. Being on the road all the time I am out in hotels and restaurants so when I come home I like having my friends over just to hang out and catch up.

It is holiday time so I had a bunch of people over around Thanksgiving. I went and bought some lights for the back yard and put some pillows, a carpet, and music on out there and made it a little lounge. Inside I had “fall-ish” flower arrangements, candles lit, some appetizers and some different more up beat music.

Because we were on a mini break from the show I was able to have some of the crew friends that I work with join. Here are some of the pictures from the party with my friends.

We also had an Extreme Makeover:Home Edition Holiday party. It is always great when we can get together with everyone involved in the show especially those that do not travel with us or ones that have moved on.

This party was at a local venue here in Hollywood with a special performance by Candis Cayne of “Dirty Sexy Money" & "Nip Tuck”. Her private performance for the crew was just fantastic. She danced and sang 3 songs and did some stand up for us. We all really appreciated her coming out to do that for the entire crew.

The night was definitely filled with holiday cheer!

That is it for the holiday season from me and I hope that you all enjoyed your holidays.
Felicidades
Eduardo

December 4, 2008

The American Music Awards

Where do I begin on this night! I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go this year to the 2008 American Music Awards.

Here I am with my good friend Assaf Blecher who is a Producer/Director of Development at Dick Clark Productions. He was kind enough to plan the entire evening for us.

It started with our limo ride down to the Nokia Theatre here in downtown Los Angeles. Our limo was filled with friends including Candis Cayne from ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money and the ever wonderful Bridgette Nielson and her husband Mateo. Definitely a ride to remember!

I have to say it was quite a reunion with Bridgette, we haven’t seen each other since our first meeting 20 years ago!

When we arrived to the Nokia Theatre the red carpet press craziness began with photographers, live interviews, and meeting and reeting some of the talented stars that were performing.

Here I am meeting the Jonas Brothers as we were walking down the press line together.

In this photo Candis Cayne looks flawless as usual and our friend Andrew Gruver, a Marketing & Promotions Manager at SBE joins Assaf and myself for one more red carpet photo before we rush into the theatre to grab our seats.

After the awards we headed to the main after party for a bite to eat and then over to Christina Aguilera’s party where we met up with Vanessa Manillo and Nick Lachey. Here I am with Vanessa and a great friend of mine Herb Ankrom who produced a new show on ABC called True Beauty which Vannessa hosts. It comes out this January so keep an eye out for it!

After that sadly it was time for the evening to end. It was a wonderful evening and I thank Assaf very much for having us all be a part of it.

Salud
Eduardo

November 25, 2008

Wow my friends!

It has been such a long time since last I blogged!  Well my new blog will live right here on my new website.  The holidays are quickly approaching and what a year it has been.

My second book, Extreme Entertaining Made Simple, just came out on November 4, 2008…yes election day!  It’s been tough to get the marketing and PR I was hopping for having to compete with these recent elections and our challenging economy, but I’m happy about the change that is taking place!  Finally, some hope.  As for my book, I’m really proud of it.  Please go out and purchase one.  It’s also a great gift for the holidays!  You can find it at www.amazon.com.
Here is one of the pictures from the book.

We’re now more than halfway through the season shooting Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  Can you believe it?  Season 6!  I have one more show to shoot before the year ends, and looking forward to taking a few weeks off with no travel!
Here I am delivering a special tree.  I love trees!

I hope that you all like my site and feel free to shoot me an e-mail at info@eduardoxol.com.

Blog you soon!

Eduardo