How Weird Is Austin, Tx?

[Gill]

Today I heard a radio programme about Austin, Tx, after reading two reviews from fairly reputable sources. The reviews were:

"Keep Austin Weird" is the unofficial motto of the liberal bohemian city at the centre of right-wing Republican Texas. Every town has its couple of eccentrics who wander around shouting, but Austin, the state capital, genuinely appears to have its own club. As presenter Peter Curran walks the streets and meets some of its inhabitants, we learn of a man who bounces along with giant springs on his shoes and bunny ears on his head, the city's annual Festival of Spam in which processed meat is eaten from the stomach of a mannequin, and of the homeless crossdresser who regularly runs for mayor. It's about as one-off as a documentary can get and, until something out-weirds it, the most perfectly peculiar programme of the year. (Radio Times.)

If you’re a Loose Ends fan (Gill's Note: this is a reference to a particularly boring British radio programme) you’ll know the voice of Peter Curran and remember that unorthodox Texan cowboy singer Kinky Friedman. They meet again in this entertaining celebration of the state capital of Austin, Texas. It prides itself on being a weird city, unorthodox, as unlike the Texas of the Bush family or Lyndon Johnson as can be imagined, a bastion of liberalism, full of jokes and music and let-it-be attitudes. But big corporations are moving in and there’s local apprehension that with them will come more rigid attitudes. (Daily Telegraph.)

After seeing those reviews, I recorded and listened to the broadcast. It left me pondering these questions:

1. Is Austin, Tx, really that weird?
   
2. If it isn't the weirdest place in America, where is weirder?
   
3. I always thought places such as Cicely in Alaska were fictional, but is it possible that the writers of Northern Exposure found their inspiration in the south of America?

Gill

[GrayBeard Phil]

It is my unqualified personal opinion that Austin, Tx (Home of University of Texas, and Capital of the State of Texas) is no weirder than Madison, Wisconsin (U. of Wisconsin and Capital of the State of Wisconsin) or Minneapolis, Minnesota (U. of Min. State Cap.) There are a few other states that combine (co-locate) the State Government with a Major University campus in the same city. Georgia Inst. of Technology is Co-Located in Atlanta, Georgia. There may be a few more I don't know about.

The University of Texas is similar to other very liberal (political and socially), overeducated populations co-located with a State Government and a Major University. Quite a few of the residences of Austin are former attendees of the University, but never left the city and it's social cultural environs. For employment, they drift into civil service or the state court system.

Note: Austin, TX and Madison, WI are medium sized cities. The relative small population of the area is dominated employment with either the University or the State Government. Larger cities like Minneapolis and Atlanta have a more diverse population employment base.

The uniqueness of Austin comes in the comparison to the rest of the cultural and social climate of Texas. You will have to just take my word for it, but Madison Wisconsin is reputed to also be way, WAY, socially and politically more left than most of the rest of the state. However, compared to the Austin --> State of Texas split, well Wisconsin more or less fades into the background.

As one person told me during the Student Riots of 1971:

"If you keep 'em all together, makes it a lot easier to keep track of 'em. Them's being the state bureaucrats, elected officials, lawyers, and the Leftist University types. That way we don't have to hunt them down. Kind of like a Game Preserve, if you catch my drift."

Just image if the University of California was co-located in Sacramento instead of Berkley, CA. Or, State Capital of Washington moved to Seattle, or {fill in your own}

IIRC, England (wisely it maybe) moved it's Major Universities to Cambridge a few years ago (900 Years?). However, Paris I believe has several major Universities (and some art schools) co-located in Paris along with the French National Government. I wonder just how that is working out: the French Government vs the Left Bank of Paris? Nice cozy and friendly you think?

Phil

[f250]

Hey GrayBeard Phil,

Not to be a stick in the mud, but the capital of Minnesota is not Minneapolis, it is St Paul. St Paul (just east of Minneapolis) is a smaller city in comparison with Minneapolis. There is a healthy chunk of the University Campus in St Paul, but the majority is in Minneapolis.

Now if you'd like to talk weird, yeah Minneapolis is weird. The good news of course is that it is the home of the Mighty Vikings and Twins.

Tom

[Gill]

Hmmmm...

So by that token, Phil, the weirdest places in Britain should be Oxford and Cambridge? Yet they're bastions of conformity. Perhaps we should be looking at where all the graduates who don't remain at their alma mater for research go when they graduate. By and large, that would be London, which is also pretty conformist.

For weirdness, I think you'd have to look to the likes of Glastonbury, a place closely associated with legends such as Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur. Nowadays it's a magnet for neo-druids and others with exotic spiritual identities. There's also Portmeirion in Wales, which some of you might recall as the setting for the classic 1960's TV series, "The Prisoner". However, it isn't particularly renowned for being populated by eccentric characters.

I wonder where the weirdest place in the world is?

Gill

[GrayBeard Phil]

Originally Posted by Gill

Hmmmm...

So by that token, Phil, the weirdest places in Britain should be Oxford and Cambridge? Yet they're bastions of conformity.
{snip}
I wonder where the weirdest place in the world is?.... Gill

Well,..... You see with Oxford and Cambridge being separated from the seat of Government, the Eggheads and bureaucrats don't interact as much. It sort of breaks the feedback loop as it were. What about the Capital of Scotland? Does Edinburgh (and the University there) rate as...?

As for just plain WEIRD.. I think you have to mix Voodoo, the Caribbean, and a local religion that mixes the WEED with reverence for the Late Hailee Selassie of Ethiopia. A place that is home to the brewing of some of the best brands of Rum, and great sea food always available. (Question: Just how many shots of Rum will it take for someone over the age of 60 before they try to dance the Limbo?)

Tom (f250):

Yes, you are correct. However, from my point of view, there is no real separation geographically speaking. It is a local political distinction. For comparisons, in my mind, when I say New York City, I include not only the areas of Brooklyn, the Bronx, most of of Long Island, but I also include parts of New Jersey. Locals I am sure are appalled by such gross groupings. I am sorry about lumping St Paul in with Minneapolis.

Phil

[Pajaro]

Austin? Where's that?

[Gill]

Why do you want to know, Pete? Are you looking for somewhere to wear bunny ears while bouncing down the street wearing shoes fitted with huge springs?



Gill

[Toolman56]

Goodmorning, and to think Iowa was gonna change the states moto, to ten thousand lakes and one dum govener,that would be weirder, but i think Austin go us beat by a long ways, but then we get sued by our neighbor to the north.

[Toolman56]

Originally Posted by Gill

Why do you want to know, Pete? Are you looking for somewhere to wear bunny ears while bouncing down the street wearing shoes fitted with huge springs?



Gill

Nope he want's to wear the the tight low top and mini leather outfit with his 6 inch heels, hehehehehehehe

[Jediscroller]

Having travelled extensively, I don't think anyplace even comes remotely close to most of Southern California, in particular Hollywood (aka Hollywierd). Where else can you learn ebonics, raise another contry's flag at your high school, have different graduation ceremonies dependent on your ethnicity, have whatever the people vote in thrown out by the court and as a bonus get caught in a crossfire between the most gang infested area in the country?

A little trivia regarding Austin, TX. It was named in honor of the Austin family from Darien, CT who many credit with being the first to settle Texas.