I live in a town with the motto: “Keep Austin Weird.” So this first page is about Austin, but that’s not the only weird stuff you’ll find. To view my pages, see the top of this page. Click on the tabs to go to different pages. For instance, click on Blog, then click on one of the blogs.
AUSTIN,TEXAS, WEIRD & WONDERFUL
One of the sayings in this town is “Keep Austin Weird.” It refers especially to South Austin, which is a funkier part of town, with more of the old vibes of how Austin used to be before it started growing by leaps and bounds in the mid-1990s. Austin is a mix of technology (Dell, Texas Instruments, etc.), education (home of UT and the Longhorns and some other smaller colleges), politics (being the state capital), liberals and conservatives, music and entertainment (6th street), natural beauty (Barton Springs, the green belt, the hill country), religions (protestant, baptist, hindu, muslim, atheist, pagan & more), cuisine (Tex-Mex, barbeque, Asian, Italian, Middle-Eastern, cajun, etc.), old & new, young & old...even weather. It can be hot one day in January and freezing the next. WEIRD!
It’s a fun place to live because there is always something going on and something for everybody, from music and movie festivals to holistic health conventions. We’ve also added F1 to our weirdness. Just like football is weird because thousands of people scream their heads off to see other people bash into each other or throw a pigskin, at the races people pay a lot of money to watch cars go crazy fast and maybe crash. WEIRD!
A lot of people don’t understand this “keepin’ it weird” thing, though. They want the town to be a model of modern technology and development--Get rid of the funky old stuff and make way for progress. That includes making way for overpopulation, traffic congestion, pollution, and poverty. Actually, Austin is a microcosm of the world, of how weird the planet is. It would be boring if everything was the same. It’s more interesting when there are a lot of strange and different things to see, hear, feel, and learn about. Check out http://www.keepaustinweird.com/home.html/
There’s a Museum of the Weird on 6th Street in Austin. See their web page at http://www.museumoftheweird.com/ where they advertise: Shrunken heads! Freaks of Nature! Texas Big-Foot!
If you think weird Austin isn’t interesting enough, check out Weird America. Learn about saving Zippy the Pinhead. Meet the Willy Wonka of Meat, hotdog art pieces! Hot dog earrings. Hot Dog Radio. Hot dog squirt gun!!! and more!!!
Name: Christine
Location:Austin, TX
Occupation: artist, writer, & editor
Did you know that xeno- is from the Greek xenos for strange or foreign? Xenophobia is fear of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. (See Blog above for entry on peculiar phobias.) A xenophile is someone who is attracted to foreign things. Xenomania is an attraction to foreign and strange customs and manners.
Are you xenophobic or xenophilic?
Weird and Wonderful Oddities of Nature--Miracle Mice, square eyes, blind horses, killer swans:
http://listverse.com/bizarre/10-weird-and-wonderful-oddities-of-nature/
“Weird, True, and Freaky” TV Shows on Animal Planet.
https://www.animalplanet.com/full-episodes
And here’s more weirdness!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/section/weird-news
http://www.dailyhaha.com/pictures/weird/
WHY WEIRD IS WONDERFUL AND BANKABLE:
Weirdness is great for parties!
Weirdness means more freedom.
Weirdness isn’t boring.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2011/12/13/why-weird-is-wonderful-and-bankable/2/
Austin is famous for its bats, having the largest urban bat colony in North America, about 1.5 million bats. They come out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge every evening from mid-March to November. It’s an awesome sight to watch them and has become a big tourist attraction. For other things to do in Austin, check out “Weird and Wonderful Austin” at http://www.travelmuse.com/articles/austin/austin-travel-attractions-neighborhoods.
Check out the weird and wonderful house Casa Neverlandia in Austin.
Casa Neverlandia is located in the heart of the SoCo district about halfway between South Congress and South First, and approx. six tenths of a mile south of the river. The address is 305 West Milton, very close to the corner of Newton and W. Milton, and just over 2 blocks west of S. Congress (look for the store Mi Casa at the corner where W. Milton intersects S. Congress).
See an article at
KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD!
Hang out at Maria’s Taco Express
in South Austin on Sunday mornings for Hippy Church.
Go to poetry readings!!!
For a list of the best weird places to visit in Texas, click on this link: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:689767
