Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town - Softcover

Wassenich, Red

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764326392 ISBN 13: 9780764326394

Publisher: Schiffer, 2007

Synopsis

Red Wassenich, who coined of the phrase “Keep Austin Weird,” is tour guide to the weirder side of Austin, Texas, through this endlessly entertaining text and over 180 color photos of colorful places, people, and doings in the state’s capital city. Tour the Cathedral of Junk, a three-story, sixty-ton behemoth made with hubcaps, TVs, and over 700 bicycles. Meet Leslie, the cross-dressing, semi-homeless perennial mayoral candidate. Party at the Spamarama, Austin's premier weird cook-off, known for its Spam-filled dishes from "gourmet" and "insane" recipes. Keep your eyes peeled for cruising art cars or take a Segway tour of downtown. Shop in South 1st Street's weird businesses, including Roadhouse Relics and Unemployed Democrats. Sports fans must see Austin's Roller Derby, starring the Texas Rollergirls, and bowl at the Dart Bowl, where bowling kitsch is king. For the adventurous, there is no better guide to Austin!

About this title

About the Author

Red Wassenich is co-founder of both The Salamander Weekly, a penny publication of imaginary news, and the satirical Church of the Coincidental Metaphor. He is a mild-mannered librarian at Austin Community College when he's not out documenting weird doings in his beloved hometown.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Keep Austin Weird" came into this world on a sring Saturday in 2000, one of the underreported consequences of Y2K. I was calling in my donation to a fund-raiser on all-volunteer radio station KOOP for The Lounge Show, which features smooth crooners such as Bobby Darin and Louis Prima along with strange tunes such as Bing Crosby's "Hey Jude" and William Shatner's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." When asked why I chose this show, the words came out: "It helps keep Austin weird."

Bingo. Sounds like a good slogan, I thought. I mentioned the phrase to my wife, Karen Pavelka, who soon had a thousand bumper stickers in hand. We started handing them out for free to friends and those who seemed worthy (not a mutually exclusive group). For instance, an early one went at Spamarama to the winner of the "Spam Cram," a competition to eat a can of the delicious potted meat the fastest. slowly caught on. We never tried to make money on it and have been very successful at that. Those who started giving away and selling KAW-related stuff are largely responsible for the slogan's popularity, which has some drearily ironic aspects in that the commercialization of the phrase--it's largely seen as a marketing slogan--contradicts one of our underlying inspirations for Keep Austin Weird: Stop the obsession with money and development that leads to the homogenization that makes every American city look alike. Now some say the phrase is becoming so widespread as to be homogenizing itself. And its use as a marketing tool is spreading to other cities, to further the irony.

Edition details

• Publisher: Schiffer
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0764326392
• ISBN 13: 9780764326394
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128