A goofy PSA I shot for work.

Willow ruled. That is a statement that can not be questioned. Thus it was a huge thrill to chat with the man himself, Warwick Davis. Give a listen.

It’s tough being Anna Brady (Amy Adams). She’s dating an attractive cardiologist who buys her expensive jewelry and seems to genuinely love her. But, unfortunately, he hasn’t proposed marriage, and it’s tearing her apart. When he travels to Dublin on business, Anna decides to fly there and propose to him on Leap Day. This woman-popping-the-question-to-the-man business is apparently an Irish Leap Year tradition, so Anna is hoping her boyfriend—who obviously isn’t ready to get married—will enter into wedded bliss because of an archaic custom. Stupid idea.

Before she arrives at her destination, the plane is diverted and she’s dropped off in a jerkwater hamlet, where she meets a cynical bar owner named Declan (Matthew Goode, Watchmen), who agrees to drive her to Dublin. I wonder what’s going to happen next?

Ha, that last line is what we in the writing business call “sarcasm.” You see, because there is never any doubt as to what will happen next. Actually, the trailer for Leap Year gives you enough plot to surmise how this thing plays out, and guess what: you’ll be right!

Sure, I went into this review fully prepared for a disappointing performance, but that’s not particularly bad; my expectations were so low that anything above mediocre would qualify it as a success. Alas, even with a cellar-dwelling expectation level, Amy Adams and company couldn’t clear it. Leap Year manages to crater on all standards that a passable romantic comedy should be judged.

Here’s a feature I wrote on a Dambar Kadariya, a Nepalese man who has discovered great reward in taking care of the developmentally disabled.  (Appeared in the New Hampshire Sunday News, 2/21/2010 )

In 2001, Dambar Kadariya won the lottery. He didn’t score $50 million, but, for him, receiving word that he had been one of 50,000, chosen for a Diversity Visa– out of worldwide applicant pool of 30 million–to come to the United States, was nearly as exciting.

“It was like winning Powerball,” the Nepal native says, laughing.

Nine months of paperwork and bureaucracy later, Dambar’s plane touched down in New England, and he and his wife and unborn child were set to start a new life in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Now, eight years later, Dambar is a successful Direct Support Professional, serving his eighth year as an employee of Moore Center Services and sporting an impressive piece of recognition: the 2009 Region 7 New Hampshire DSP of the Year award.

The Rime of The Dangerous Man
(with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

It is a Dangerous Man
And he killeth one of three
By thy slicked back hair and squinty eyes
Now wherefore killeth thou me?

The Dangerous Man’s fists are opened wide,
And he’s ready to begin,
With shoves and slaps and kicks and smacks,
May’st hear the violent din!

He holds me with his liver-spotted hand,
“Time to die,” snarls he!
“But wait, unhand me, wrinkled goon!”
Efstoons his hand slapped me.

He holds me with his tiny eye—
Powerless, I stood still,
And listened like a frightened child;
The Dangerous Man hath his will!