We Have an Issue: Babies on the Brain

Staff writer Kevin Curtin tends not to post pictures of his son on social media; he says he never liked people "clogging up my feed" with their cute kids, and having a baby didn't change his stance. But there have been loads of other changes in Kevin's first year as a father, which he's been documenting in these pages – both explicitly (see his deeply personal April 23 story of Quinn's birth just days into the pandemic) and from a sideways angle, as is the case with this week's cover interview with Black Angels singer Alex Maas.

The occasion is the release of Maas' debut solo record, named Luca for his young son, who was gestating in tandem with the album. Unsurprisingly, Kevin, who's also a musician, and Maas' conversation reflected on how raising a child had changed them as artists – and not in ways they were warned about. As Kevin described it to me, "Fatherhood wakes up a new part of your brain." It's the opposite of the fear that having a kid will rob you of something – your edge, your creative juice. It's addition, not subtraction. I found that idea really moving.

Check out Kevin's conversation with Alex Maas, and Doug Freeman's accompanying review (four stars!).

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Unfortunately, there's no sunny way to spin the latest COVID-19 numbers. The news is bad. We are failing as a community to stop the transmission of this disease, and our hospitals, our health care workers, are at the very brink of being unable to meet demand. See Associate News Editor Beth Sullivan's report.

Often in my role as editor-in-chief, forever badgering editors to meet their deadlines or respond to my emails, I feel like a professional nag. I'll slip on the same hat here to reiterate the requests of our public health leaders: If you must go out, then cover your face, avoid crowds, and stay outdoors. If you see a business flagrantly flouting safety rules, you can report it by calling 311. But as Austin Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott put it in Monday's press conference, "We cannot enforce our way out of a surge."

It comes down to personal responsibility.

Benching ourselves on New Year's Eve is the best way we can care for ourselves and our neighbors. There'll be plenty time to party in 2021.

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Online This Week

Year of the Ox: Back when the revered artist Rollo Banks worked for the Chronicle in the Eighties, he produced a memorable series of Chinese New Year covers. As we approach the Year of the Ox (which starts February 12 on the Chinese lunar calendar), we've reproduced the original cover in T-shirt and mug form, which you can now find for sale in our online shop at austinchronicle.com/store.

Stay Safe, Support Small Businesses, Still Get Sloshed: Staying in for New Year's Eve is the safest way to tipple – even better when you're putting money in local businesses' pockets. David Brendan Hall rounds up 10 restaurants and bars offering to-go beverages.

Bon Voyage, Jim: Over the holidays it was announced aGLIFF Artistic Director Jim Brunzell was departing the long-running LGBTQIA film festival after seven years at the helm. Brunzell also runs Minnesota-based film/music festival Sound Unseen, which spread to Austin this year in its virtual format.

Even the Marvel CInematic Universe Is Stuck at Home: We preview 12 new TV shows to catch in January, including the hotly anticipated arrival of a couple superheroes on the small screen in WandaVision on Disney+.

Send Snacks ASAP! Feeling a mite peckish? Here's five tasty snacks from all over that can be delivered right to your Austin door.