About the Weird

I'll be honest. We are giving alot of thought to moving to Austin. There are many reasons why, which I won't get into now, only say that somethings gotta give.

It is weird, because it's unlike any other city in Texas. It's a place where artists and musicians and people who want to be different simply for the sake of being different can thrive.

I think there is alot of weirdness just to, well, Keep Austin Weird. This includes: houses painted in all shades of blue, green, lavender, red and yellows and adorned with all sorts of decoupaging and mosaics. Extreme hairstyles and clothing options. Piercings. Tattoos. Bumper stickers that read "I put hot sauce on my hot sauce" and eco-friendly cars that make people look like they are going around in oversized turtle shells.

You know your a New Yorker when you don't do a double take when you see a man wearing full makeup and whitey tighties. We've become calloused. Nothing shocks you anymore. Only seeing it in Austin Texas did startle me somewhat. I was out of my element, or perhaps they were. I don't know, either way, I really loved the city.

Being able to park (for free) and walk to multiple venues of (free) music by good artists who were passionate about what they were doing was life giving. It made me smile. Add a $3.00 Vodka tonic- and I'm really smiling. Blues, jazz standards, heavy metal or country. Upright basses, saxophones, harmonicas and drums. The music spilled out of the bars onto the streets and brought feeling into otherwise lifeless concrete and wood and steel.

Austin felt familiar enough call home but unique enough be entertained as well as entertaining.