Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town [Paperback]

Red Wassenich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2007

"Red Wassenich, who coined of the phrase "Keep Austin Weird

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Austin native Red Wassenich accidentally invented the phrase "Keep Austin Weird" in 2000. It has since become the unofficial city motto. Red maintains the facade of a mild-mannered librarian, which hides a past of acting odd. Among other things, he once watched TV for a week from sign-on to sign-off. He was a fake evangelist on Mexican radio. He played a cadaver in the movie "The Hunger." He loves Austin.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Keep Austin Weird" came into this world on a sring Saturday in 2000, one of the underreported consequences of Y2K. I was calling in my donation to a fund-raiser on all-volunteer radio station KOOP for The Lounge Show, which features smooth crooners such as Bobby Darin and Louis Prima along with strange tunes such as Bing Crosby's "Hey Jude" and William Shatner's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." When asked why I chose this show, the words came out: "It helps keep Austin weird."

Bingo. Sounds like a good slogan, I thought. I mentioned the phrase to my wife, Karen Pavelka, who soon had a thousand bumper stickers in hand. We started handing them out for free to friends and those who seemed worthy (not a mutually exclusive group). For instance, an early one went at Spamarama to the winner of the "Spam Cram," a competition to eat a can of the delicious potted meat the fastest. slowly caught on. We never tried to make money on it and have been very successful at that. Those who started giving away and selling KAW-related stuff are largely responsible for the slogan's popularity, which has some drearily ironic aspects in that the commercialization of the phrase--it's largely seen as a marketing slogan--contradicts one of our underlying inspirations for Keep Austin Weird: Stop the obsession with money and development that leads to the homogenization that makes every American city look alike. Now some say the phrase is becoming so widespread as to be homogenizing itself. And its use as a marketing tool is spreading to other cities, to further the irony.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing (April 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764326392
• ISBN-13: 978-0764326394
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Texas

More About the Author

Red Wassenich is the inventor of the pharase Keep Austin Weird and an Austin native. He is a librarian and formerly was a fake evangelist on Mexican border radio ("The Brother Heumann Hour) and played a cadaver in the movie "The Hunger."

He published the novel "Nothing Before Something" in 2011.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential guide., April 23, 2007

By 

Jay Young (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town (Paperback)

If you're new to Austin, thinking about visiting, or even if you've lived there for a while and are interested in what all the "Keep Austin Weird" fuss is about, this is an essential guide, and a lavishly illustrated one. If you're looking for a synopsis and photographs about the weird/unique things of Austin- you'll find it here- from the Annual Spamarama to eccentric political candidates to the Texas Chili Parlor to Satan's Cheerleaders. To my knowledge, this is the only book on Austin of its kind, and so is an essential resource for those who are thinking about visiting the city or native Austinites who want to learn more about it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, October 18, 2007

By 

Malarkey (seattle, wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town (Paperback)

I've been researching Austin for the past few months, and I can't believe it took me this long to come across this book. Not only is it a fabulous guide, it's hilariously written. Kudos to Mr. Wassenich.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've never been to Austin..., April 20, 2009

By 

Riverspirit "Anne" (Elk River, Alabama) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town (Paperback)

I've never been to Austin, but this book kinda makes me want to visit. Someone left it in a breakroom at work, and I'd flip through it when I was microwaving lunch. It amused me so much that I started going to read bits of it when I got really stressed out at work. It worked for me as a stress reliever. Cool, weird, funky book -- and I get the impression Austin is also cool, weird and funky -- all good things to me. :)