As everyone who lives here undoubtedly already knows (and often chafes against), Austin’s unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird.”

Great. Lovely. Fabulous, even. But ever since I arrived here, I’ve been trying to figure out what, exactly, makes this city so allegedly weird. Maybe my expectations are too high; after all, I have lived in New York City, which is pretty much The King of All Weird. But, for heaven’s sakes, even my previous hometown of Montreal was weirder than this place. (Dude, are you trying to tell me strip clubs on every corner of a town’s main drag is NORMAL?!)

Thus I have turned to the experts: former Austinite Joshua Long, author of the nonfictional book Weird City: Sense of Place and Creative Resistance in Austin, Texas, and current Austinite Amelia Gray, author of the fictional book Museum of the Weird.

According to Long, Austin is a creative city that recently experienced a population explosion with the Tech Boom, bringing with it all the accompanying growing pains of any city-in-progress. Locals remember it “back when” (usually in some golden era of the 1970s, clothed in full hippie regalia), and new residents want to incorporate their own “weirdness” from California, New York, or what have you. His book chronicles all of this, from then to now, in great cultural geographical detail. I highly recommend it.

Gray, on the other hand, revels in the daily absurdities Austin has to offer, inspired more by the actual Museum of the Weird down on 6th Street. In her book of short stories she documents penguins and armadillos chatting in bars, men who’ve married inanimate objects like penknives and bags of frozen Tilapia, and women on awkward dates who find themselves presented with plates of human hair. These stories are more up my particular alley of weirdness, and on the scale from 1 to odd I’d give them a rating of Definitely Bizarre (though not Bizarro World). Again, highly recommended.

So what, you may be asking, is indeed my POINT? Well, inspired by Amelia’s Museum of the Weird and Joshua’s tales of the creative city-in-progress, I’ve decided to institute a weekly post on this very topic.

Welcome to WEIRD WEDNESDAY, where features may or may not include any or all of the following:

• Restaurants with weird themes or foods
• Boutiques that jangle my weird-o-meter
• Local weirdos (meant in the kindest and best possible way, of course)
• Odd illustrations and photographic documentation of local weirdness
• Guest posts by weird peeps about weird projects

I hope you enjoy the ride, and if you’d care to contribute to the weirdness, I’d love to hear from you! Hit me up using the contact page, or tweet me @shoestringATX and we’ll do lunch.