Keep Austin Weird

US cities aren’t really part of the plan but the music centric city of Austin couldn’t be driven by. Home to the famous ‘South by Southwest’ festival it’s a hot bed of music venues and talent. One of the days we were there, 104 venues were advertising live music. It’s a city on the upswing, lots of tech businesses are here and its the home of Tesla. We were hoping for a different type of cultural to experience!

Camping on the outskirts at a State park, as it’s so much cheaper than the RV park in the city, was great, and gave us the opportunity to do our own ‘cultural sampling’ of Austin via Uber drivers. Think of it like car exit polling! Given it was so bloomin cold we opted for this rather than cycling in and also, riding back in the dark after likely being in a venue with numerous IPA’s on tap was probably not the greatest idea. Our first Uber driver was, sadly, what we’d come to experience so far. He didn’t care about the rest of the world, America could look after itself; WW2 cost them too much money (he clearly missed the Fox News report about Germany paying it back) and he thought Biden was a ****er. Our first stop in Austin was The Texas Capital Building, what would we find, a riot?!!

We were actually pleasantly surprised. Free to go in and wander, after the obligatory airport style scanning, we explored the building. A stunning piece of architecture centred around a vast dome. The 1936 rotunda floor below reflecting the 6 flags under which Texas has existed, all sovereign entities. These are Spain (twice), France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, the United States (twice) and the Confederate States. We were lucky too, to ask and find out, how the political system works there versus at a Federal level which was insightful to say the least. We realised how undemocratic it is in reality, versus the ‘Save our Democracy’ claims (that’s for conversations when we get back if anyone’s interested) and it was also the view of the person explaining it to us. Anyhow, a fabulous and surprising place to visit, wandering the halls of such a powerful state. Split into two chambers, Senate and Representatives, same as Washington and also, not much gets agreed here either!

Our first day in Austin was north of the Colorado River, the downtown area. Quite a few high rise but not too many and lots of older buildings squished in between them. It made for a fabulously subtle skyline. It had a good feel to it, coffee culture meets office blocks and a few restaurants and music venues thrown in. Some great buildings, street art and nods to bygone days with the superb old signage. We noticed Elvis was playing that night (Costello that is!) Austin isn’t a place full of tourist sights, its a wander place. For us it was a ‘feel the vibe’ kinda town. New vibe time, we also saw our first ever fully autonomous vehicle, a taxi. They are ‘WAYMO’ and eventually there’ll be no driver, yikes!

The Red River district is where it’s at though. It’s bars and music venues everywhere, with a fab donut shop thrown in for good measure (and taste) As it started to go dark it came alive, sounds coming from the wide open street side windows, and flickering colours from the numerous ginormous TV’s showing ‘Sports’. If we had the munchies there were loads of food trucks to cater to us too. Some ubiquitous Willie Nelson street art of course and some signs that were up there on the giggle stakes. The bars tended to be on the large size and filled up as the evening rolled on. We rolled on back in another Uber for a -5C night but with a younger and more rounded set of opinions to add to our cultural survey. It warmed our cockles so it did, to know there were some young, wider perspective folks out there!

South of Congress or SoCo is the naming convention for the area south of the river, Congress being the road up to the Capital Building. Adopting a New York district naming convention, SoCo is very different. A hub of independent shops, some of which have clearly been around for a long time, it’s awash with a hippy vibe and buzz that was really fun. Perhaps the Cannabis vending machines help?! Nick wasn’t too pleased at the meat market named after him! Being the weekend it was colourful and there were lots of bars, food places and food trucks and naturally a level of gentrification, new apartment blocks nuzzled behind the vibrant street facade. A fab pair of boots made for walkin’ by Allen…This is the area that the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan reflected when it was coined, an area where the little guy fights to stop the big guy with local support. To a degree, there has been big guy building going on these days but there’s still a definite heart and the hope that the anti consumerism aspect of the moto prevails.

From there a long river walk, being trampled by the weekend joggers, through Butler Metro Park and Butler Shores Park to Zilker Park. Sadly, too late for the outdoor art park and thankfully, unable to get to the Peter Pan Mini Golf either. We wandered back through a different part, met King Kong’s brother and found a new car… We saw a different type of art though, heading back into the main part of SoCo, architecture. The district of Bouldin Creek is being taken over by developers. There’s plenty of gorgeous, characterful old homes there being demolished and ‘modern, featureless hulks’ put in their place. Gone are the gorgeous gardens and proportionate homes, replaced by concrete driveways and plate glass windows, a type street side voyeur loves. Sad really, a 1/3rd acre home/plot is on the market for $1.3m….

Our second night was a rendezvous at The Saxon Pub… we didn’t ask why it was so named. The Canadians we’d met the night before recommended it as a venue and it was a good venue, the music however is pot luck. Our band for the evening was called ‘Denim’, we renamed them ‘Faded Denim’ as that was more appropriate. I had to put my fingers in my ears as they murdered The Beatles ‘Help!’ and we wondered what we were in for, an ‘aged 70’s’ cover band? Actually we think the lead singer was in his 80’s… To be fair though, they got better, we didn’t know any of the tunes but at least they were in tune, most of the time 🙂 After a long day wandering and a few drinks we headed back, knowing Jigsaw would make us pay for being out for so long. Our Uber was a younger woman, an aspiring actress and singer who seemed too small for the car, but she was fun and pretty articulate so got a tick on our survey.

We really enjoyed Austin, the Weird status fits it really well. Apparently debated frequently since it’s inception in 2000, as the city’s population has soared and some of the local business have closed, we think it’s cool and if anything, reminding folks that community rallying, for stuff that matters is part of a places identity. Austin was certainly different to other parts of the Texas eclectic mix and not a single firearm seen anywhere.

For anyone interested in what Jigsaw’s been up to, diddly squat basically! Too cold for her to set her paws outside most of the time so she’s slept and eaten for the past few weeks.