Robert Altman died last night.

He was a hell of a brilliant filmmaker, such an original that his followers can't capture his seemingly effortless ability to combine naturalistic dialogue, improvisation, ensemble casting, and (in his great movies, at least) his profound belief in humanity, for good and for evil.

If you'd like to read what some great, if obscure, writers think about his movies, please go read our Bob Altman issue of The High Hat, published just last week. The editorial at the top should soon be modified to include our sorrow over his passing.

High Hat #7, ready for the public.

This issue, the Potlatch section is an assessment of Robert Altman, good and bad. There's also articles on pop culture artifacts as widely-flung as:

• In music: Schoenberg, Bonnarude, and death metal
• In literature & art: comics continuity, drunken novels, Charles Schulz, Prayer, and Pryor
• In movies: Artificial Intelligence and monkeys; and
• In TV: Deadwood and The Wire.

I've been sick. I'm at about 35% right now. If I felt better, though, I'd be dancing in the streets.