The Little Black Hat

In 1964, when I was ten years old, I paid attention to a man from the other side of the world who was wearing a little black hat. His name was Sukarno. He was overthrown by another man with a little black hat. His name was Suharto. He passed away earlier today.

For what it's worth, it was that little black hat that opened me up to my interest in Indonesia. What a ten-year-old pays attention to, eh?

So Sad

Heath Ledger was brilliant as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain. As good as Phillip Seymour Hoffman was in Capote--and he was--in retrospect, shouldn't Heath have won (and I wanted him to)? I'm sad. Oh, so sad. Twenty-eight years old? He'd barely begun to live...