Media Credit: Joe Buglewicz Red Wassenich first coined the phrase "Keep Austin Weird". He works as a librarian for ACC.

Media Credit: Joe Buglewicz The new "Keep Austin Weird" T-shirts lay on display at Tyler´s on Guadalupe Street. Tyler´s has been carrying the marketed "Keep Austin Weird" T-shirts for two years.

Media Credit: Joe Buglewicz Brint Morrow, center, dines at Threadgills on North Lamar late Monday afternoon. Threadgills opened in 1933 and has showcased artists such as Janis Joplin.

Media Credit: Joe Buglewicz The Continental Club on South Congress, an early premiere Austin venue, opened in 1957. In the ´60s, the club became Austin´s first "burlesque" club. Then, in the 1970s, The Continental Club hosted such artists as Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Keep Austin Weird. It's only three words, but it's spread like hot Texas butter from the original blue-and-white bumper stickers to the fronts of T-shirts, Koozies and even themed 5K races.

And like its predecessor, the state's famous anti-littering campaign slogan of "Don't mess with Texas," Austin's unofficial slogan also sprung the city into the national spotlight, with people nationwide now associating Austin with its "weirdness."

Mayor Will Wynn recalls many moments in Austin City Council meetings when people often showed up in costumes or protested with songs or poems.

"I also like interpretative dance as an expression of opinion about zoning issues," he said in a statement.

Wynn said he thinks what makes Austin weird is the "confluence of hippie and redneck culture ... all of the really weird stuff is a manifestation of that mix."

But some old Austinites don't think the slogan correctly resonates with Austin anymore.

"Lame. L.A.M.E. And you can quote me," said Brooks Brannon, the longtime, long-mustached bartender at the Hole in the Wall bar on Guadalupe Street. "Is this something we should be proud of? Who decided that Austin's weird in the first place? Who exactly is it that wants to say Austin's weird, 'cause I don't think it is."

Brannon could think of two things off the top of his head that make Austin "weird": Lesley, the notorious thong-wearing Austinite who has run for mayor three times, and Gov. Rick Perry.

"That's weird," he said.

And Brannon is not the only one who scoffs at the slogan. Several locals hanging out at The Continental Club on South Congress Avenue last week said they didn't think Austin was "weird" anymore and listed specific events, which to their minds, denoted Austin's turning point toward normality.

"Austin isn't weird anymore," said one man as he enjoyed a Toni Price concert at the Continental Club. "It stopped being weird when someone bought the Liberty Lunch and put in the CSC [Computer Sciences Corporation]."

In 1998, the CSC, a large information technology company, bought a 99-year lease on the land which the Liberty Lunch, a former local Austin music hot spot, had occupied since 1976.

Other turning points, Continental Club regulars said, include the sky-rocketing property prices in the 78704 ZIP code, around the South Congress area, and the stricter law enforcement on marijuana and alcohol use now as compared to the 1970s.

The man who did decide Austin was weird is Red Wassenich, creator of the blue-and-white "Keep Austin Weird" bumper stickers and a librarian at the Austin Community College. He recalled the moment of the slogan's creation, when he'd called in to the KOOP radio's Lounge Show fund-raiser in the spring of 2000.

"They asked me, 'Why are you donating?' and I told them it helps to keep Austin weird," Wassenich said. "I kind of thought, 'Oh, that sounds like a slogan.'"

And so, Wassenich and his wife created the bumper stickers, distributing them for free to local businesses and Austin staples like Silk Road, a fabric store on Lamar Boulevard, and Oat Willies, a store on 29th Street that sells smoking accessories amongst other things. He said he intended the slogan to be a "goofy celebration of stuff about Austin" and wanted it to express a "walking-down-the-street feel."

In October 2003, Outhouse Designs trademarked the slogan to brand T-shirts, hats and other items. Wassenich said although he didn't mind the company using his phrase, what bugged him was that they trademarked it.

"I think anybody should be able to use it," Wassenich said. "I didn't want anybody to own it."

Dennis Satterfield, director of sales and marketing for Outhouse Designs, said the trademark allows the company to "gather all the groups and businesses that are unique to Austin and use it to promote that consciousness."

And some people said the slogan's popularity is a good contribution to the city, like Curt, runner No. 548, who donned a chicken-shaped hat in the spirit of the second annual Keep Austin Weird race two weeks ago.

"I think it's going to get bigger and bigger, and people are going to catch on to that slogan," he said, adding that the slogan encourages people to support local businesses.

For his part, Wassenich said that while he supports local business, "I don't find them weird."

And, he said, "I'm sure Outhouse has made a lot of money off of it."

The idea that "Keep Austin Weird" is trademarked for profit has inspired at least one Austinite to poke fun at the slogan. Andrew Allemann, who launched the satirical "Make Austin Normal" Web site in response to the original slogan's popularity, also sells a line of "normal" Austin products on the site. One of the top sellers on Allemann's site is a T-shirt reading "78704: Actually, it's just a ZIP code," parodying the popular ZIP code's previous slogan: "78704: More than just a ZIP code." Allemann's site argues that the ZIP code, known for being "weird," can't be, since "50-year-old homes cost $200 per square foot."

"The fact that someone trademarked 'Keep Austin Weird' proves my point," Allemann said through e-mail. "How can you have a commercial slogan that screams anti-corporation?"

Allemann said he created his slogan to "show the other side of 'Keep Austin Weird,' and that a great number of people in Austin are ready for the city to grow up."

For example, he said, "People want the convenience of shopping at a Wal-Mart."

Other cities, like Boulder, Colo., and Santa Cruz, Calif., have also cashed into the "Keep _____ Weird" slogan. Ryan Coonerty, vice president of Bookshop Santa Cruz and a Santa Cruz City Council candidate, said that in late 2003, his company learned about the "Keep Austin Weird" slogan from his friends at Bookpeople in Austin. He said, "We just outright stole it," and the next day, the book store started making T-shirts. The goal of using the slogan in Santa Cruz, he said, was somewhat to support local business "in the day where there are the same strip malls over and over," but mainly to rally the support for the limited number of street musicians in the city.

With this whole "weirdness" phenomenon, can the slogan become so popular that it becomes trendy, and dare we say it, normal?

But as the town housing the largest student population in the country, Austin has at least one thing to keep it high on the weird scale, Wassenich said.

"Having students helps keep it weird," he said. "Every year, you get a new crop of weirdos."

For better or for worse, the slogan, it seems, is here to stay.

For his part, Satterfield said he thinks the slogan resonates with many people in many different ways.

"There is a piece of 'Keep Austin Weird' that is unique to every person," he said. Maybe even to Hole in the Wall's Brannon.

What is Austin if it's not weird?

"Cool," he said.

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