Early this evening I risked exposure to COVID-19 by going to a mediocre film (The Hunt). I Ubered to the AMC Barton Creek, which cost around $15. There was a fair amount of traffic on the way — many Austinites were risking death like myself. The theatre is inside a typically lavish mall, and I didn’t see a single person there over the age of 30. No middle-aged or white-haired couples, no little kids — just 20somethings.

At best the movie is tolerably blah. Too much in the way of kidding and arch behavior. Bite is smaller than bark.

Plus I hated watching it with tight plastic surgical gloves on my hands and that stupid N95 mask around my neck. What a ghastly thing it is to be afraid of infections and surfaces in everyday life, to be afraid of death and disease at every turn. I washed my face and hands four times — once after the screening, twice while wandering around Austin, again at a gas station on South Congress.

I took a city bus to downtown Austin, and was a bit surprised to discover how different it looks and feels compared to six years ago, when I was last here. Many big new buildings, a little more corporate, a bit less in the way of native personality.