I went to the movies at Baywalk on Saturday night — saw The Dark Knight, but there’s been enough about that — and as a loyal, long-time resident of the ’burg, I must say I was embarrassed.

Muvico Baywalk 20 is going to seed. Worst of all, the hallways heading into the theaters stink — they reek like a giant bin of dirty sweat sox being washed in perm solution. The joint has smelled like dirty feet for awhile, and it gets worse every time I’m there.

I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, but perhaps management might want to hire a night crew to clean the carpets.

So far the stench has not wafted into the actual theaters — and the popcorn smell masks it in the lobby — but it’s only a matter of time.

I made my usual men's room stop before the movie, and after washing (well, rinsing) my hands tried to get a slice of paper towel too dry them off. I hit up four of the dispensers. Nothing came out. Empty, all of them. I dried my hands on my pants, and went to tell the manager. I wasn’t mad, but I was a little sad.

This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...