Awn says the vibe back then wasn\u2019t something people fussed over. The town attracted artists because it was cheap, there was plenty of natural beauty and it was overall pretty laid-back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know it was weird at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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The Austintatious mural on Guadalupe Street across from the UT campus. <\/p>\n
And there was a lot of overlap, with artists, like Awn, who also was a standup comic at the club that ultimately became The Velveeta Room and was in the band Uranium Savages. People would mix and mingle and things just kind of morphed into a monoculture.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the vibe that Red Wassenich always enjoyed about Austin. For decades, Wassenich was a librarian at Austin Community College until his death in 2020. Before that, he was a student at the University of Texas and an artist and aspiring author. He told KUT<\/a> in 2016 that you could find a motorcycle repairman who\u2019s got a band on the side, or \u201caccountants who collect mannequins.\u201d It was weird, but Wassenich said that was the norm in Austin, whereas other cities in Texas, not so much.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get a lot of it kind of, for lack of a better word, everyday people who are weirdos, you know?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s just that’s cool in Austin. Whereas other places they might, you know, be looked at a bit askance. Here, it’s celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n A guy could, for example, be a solar panel technician who hosts a volunteer radio program \u2014 for two hours \u2014 that plays croony, lounge singers exclusively from France. That\u2019s the kind of stuff Jay Robillard has done for more than 30 years at KOOP Radio. Back in 2000, Wassenich called into Robillard\u2019s show during a pledge drive. Asked why, Wassenich said the show was helping \u201ckeep Austin weird.\u201d<\/p>\n He and his wife began printing up stickers saying \u201cKeep Austin Weird.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 2000s, local businesses borrowed \u2014 and weaponized \u2014 the \u201cKeep Austin Weird\u201d slogan to fight back against corporate-backed development. Book People and Waterloo Records launched a campaign with Wassenich\u2019s approval to stall and ultimately kill the construction<\/a> of a Borders Books and Music at Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard.<\/p>\n Death of ‘weird’<\/p>\n A lot\u2019s changed since the \u201cKeep Austin Weird\u201d slogan was coined.<\/p>\n Many an Austinite would argue Austin\u2019s weirdness has died since the turn of the century. If it has, it\u2019s died a lot of deaths.<\/p>\n Some say the dot-com boom and \u201cDellionaires<\/a>\u201d of the late ’90s killed Austin\u2019s \u201cweird.\u201d Others say it died when Leslie, the city\u2019s beloved cross-dressing mayoral candidate and unofficial mascot, died<\/a> or when Las Manitas was paved<\/a> over to make way for the Marriott downtown. Others insist it was Elon Musk who murdered Austin\u2019s quirk when he moved Tesla\u2019s headquarters<\/a> here, shepherding in a horde of tech bros and a cavalry of gleaming Cybertrucks.<\/p>\n A list of notable Austin locations are pictured inside of Vince Hannemann\u2019s shed at the Cathedral of Junk.<\/p>\n Second generation Austinite Daniel Cruz says that influx of tech culture has been especially prevalent over the last 10 years \u2014 even more than when Dell Technologies brought scores of tech-minded people to Austin in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n \u201cThey rebranded the city as a tech city and never told the artists,\u201d he said. \u201cIt left so many people lost without venues, communities and places to create.\u201d<\/p>\n Before moving to Seattle, Cruz worked putting on art shows at the Pine Street Station, a one-time rail depot run by Austin artist Reji Thomas<\/a> that was a hub for art and music in the 2010s as Austin saw explosive growth and soaring housing costs. The venue hosted the Fader Fort during SXSW and shined an international spotlight<\/a> on Austin\u2019s East Side before a 2014 eviction.<\/p>\n Capital Metro took over the site and it was redeveloped<\/a> into a mixed-use development at Plaza Saltillo. Now, Cruz says, the area \u2014 and the city as a whole \u2014 is \u201cmore polished\u201d and \u201cnot really weird anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe charm of creativity is gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Cruz says there is hope for Austin\u2019s weirdness. He points to the relatively recent trend of underground tunnel raves as proof of Austin\u2019s \u201cability to bring the best out in Creators.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe it’s still ‘weird’?<\/p>\n Awn, the longtime Austin artist, also split from Austin after more than 50 years in 2021. Now, he runs a gallery in Alpine, secluded from the traffic and the growth that pushed him to move out West.<\/p>\n He was in town recently for a city-sponsored exhibit<\/a> of the decidedly weird comic artist Gilbert Shelton. Awn said Austin looks different and he gets easily turned around navigating downtown, but the city\u2019s vibe and reputation as a weird place comes from the people, wherever they come from.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still weird,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really the people that make it weird, not anything about the town itself. The people make it weird.\u201d<\/p>\n Vince Hannemann puts up his \u201cJUNK KING\u201d tattooed knuckles for a portrait at the entrance of the Cathedral of Junk.<\/p>\n Vince Hannemann is one of those people who have kept the city weird. Nearly 40 years ago, Hannemann began erecting a massive backyard sculpture. His mom jokingly dubbed it the “Cathedral of Junk” and it stuck. Now, it’s a globally recognized totem of Austin’s weirdness. <\/p>\n The self-described “Junk King” gets this question a lot, whether Austin’s weird. Hannemann says the city attracts “novel” people, but that’s not unique to Austin.<\/p>\n “The same thing that makes Austin weird is what makes America weird. We foster creativity, novelty, innovation, you know?” Hannemann said. “I mean, like, we don’t give a s\u2014t! Screw you, we’re America. Screw you, we’re Texas, right? It’s that, but, you know, in a nice way.”<\/p>\n Jennifer Hecker, a native Austinite and archivist with the Austin History Center, says the debate over weirdness is really just a debate about growth and change. A venue closes? Austin\u2019s not weird. You see a Cybertruck covered in an ad for peptide treatments that promise to \u201cOPTIMIZE HUMANITY\u201d? Austin\u2019s not weird. A beloved local artist leaves<\/a> because it\u2019s unaffordable? Austin\u2019s not weird. Hecker says that hand-wringing is eternal in Austin.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve always lived here. So, is it just like that anywhere else? I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cBut that has to do with how fast things change here.\u201d<\/p>\n Thor Harris, longtime Austinite, percussionist and self-described weirdo, says Austin is, in fact, still weird. You just have to know where to look. <\/p>\n Thor Harris poses for a photo at Austin Art Village.<\/p>\n There\u2019s always going to be normal people \u201cjust doing basic boring s\u2014t,\u201d Harris says, but artists are still doing weird stuff at the Museum of Human Achievement, Dada Labs and Me-Mer-Mo Mondays, among other venues. Harris himself just participated in a Satanic Floor Tom Army<\/a>, where a bunch of drummers just got together to drone away on some floor tom drums. It was super-weird, Harris said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much weird s\u2014t going on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe lost Leslie, but I assure you there are a lot of weirdoes still in this town and the outward expression of it has many faces.\u201d<\/p>\n If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation<\/a> to support it. Your gift pays for everything you find on KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/6216c6d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5534x3689+0+0\/resize\/880x587!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbb%2F35%2F565111ee4b3d924b1aa5955d4b7b%2F20260725-cathedralofjunk-5.jpg\"\/)
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