Articles by Joe El Rady
As an eleven-year-old, Joe began an acting career that landed him roles on television shows such as Dynasty, Full House, The Wonder Years, Days of our Lives and Santa Barbara. Joe also starred in the NBC Movie, The Gifted One, and the critically acclaimed play, Unstable Conditions. Joe left acting to attend Stanford University. Upon graduating with a degree in International Relations, with honors, Joe returned to Los Angeles to manage his family’s small business, which he helped expand and lucratively sell. During this time, Joe continued to pursue his passion for film and media by writing screenplays and developing and financing film projects for Ben Stiller and his Red Hour Films shingle as well as Academy Award® winning producer Jeremy Thomas and his Recorded Picture Company. In 2007, Joe graduated with an MBA in finance from the Wharton School, where he wrote a thesis on the development of the California economy. After graduating from the Wharton School, Joe joined Houlihan Lokey, Wall Street’s preeminent financial restructuring firm, where he focused on corporate restructurings, refinancings and recapitalizations. Joe speaks Arabic, Armenian and Spanish fluently. His passions include all things California, vintage Mercedes, wine, and blonde girls. His favorite films are: Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. Currently, Joe is unemployed and passing the time by teaching finance at the UCLA extension program and also by attempting to learn to fall up.
First, I don’t like Turkey. It’s dry. Very dry. Tastes like a sponge. Feels like a sponge. Seems to suck the moisture from the bottom of the esophagus—just like a sponge. I never truly understood the reason behind the holiday either. For what exactly are we giving thanks? Stealing the country from its rightful owners?
She looked like chocolate tastes and stared like Whiskey feels. I could have stood there for hours. No conception of time, locked on her eyes, sparkling blue like jagged cut sapphires under a light. She asked, with her East European accent, “would you like to have a drink?”
As a baby of the choice generation, I’ve never considered the consequences of my choices on anyone other than myself. Membership in the choice generation assures that kind of self reference. After all, our generation seeks choice the way Baby Boomers sought wealth. We want to appropriate it and own it. Ownership accompanies possession. Possession implies a private relationship of closed interaction. We view our choices only as they pertain to us and only as they effect and consequence our lives.
Life in LA can be exciting in all the worst ways: earthquakes, floods, fires; but it also gets too soothing at times. The ocean breeze rustling the palm trees, fog rolling in an out, perfect weather every day, it can lull you. Maybe that’s the problem: too much of a good thing.
When did America evolve into a dead pool of mediocrity? Adding insult to injury, when did we decide that we should reward and compensate the talentlessness so handsomely?
At first I blamed Piper. I thought maybe she reminded me of someone. Then I thought that maybe she reminded me of a time or experience. Perhaps I ruined a date or broke up during a screening of Coyote Ugly?
Face full of verve, head full of ideas, he lived with a smirk out the right corner of his mouth. He knew the hardships of survival in Russia. Knew the hardships of survival in Oregon.
I wonder how a frog lives in a pond devoid of lily pads? Maybe forget about hopping for a while and ponder. Unfortunately, I never developed that skill.
