Weird Texas

"If your taste extends to the odd side of traveling, [this is your ticket]."--"Booklist."

Each fun and intriguing volume offers more than 250 illustrated pages of places where tourists usually don't venture, including oddball curiosities, local legends, crazy characters, and peculiar roadside attractions.

An examination of Austin’s rapid economic and creative growth and local attitudes toward the Texas capitol’s transformation as an urban center. Austin, Texas, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is experiencing one of the most dynamic periods in its history. Wedged between homogenizing growth and a long tradition of rebellious nonconformity, many Austinites feel that they are amid a battle for the city’s soul. From this struggle, a movement has emerged as a form of resistance to the rapid urban transformation brought about in recent years: “Keep Austin Weird” originated in 2000 as a grassroots expression of place attachment and anti-commercialization. Its popularity has led to its use as a rallying cry for local business, as a rhetorical tool by city governance, and now as the unofficial civic motto for a city experiencing rapid growth and transformation. By using “Keep Austin Weird” as a central focus, Joshua Long explores the links between sense of place, consumption patterns, sustainable development, and urban politics in Austin. Research on this phenomenon considers the strong influence of the “Creative Class” thesis on Smart Growth strategies, gentrification, income inequality, and social polarization made popular by the works of Richard Florida. This study is highly applicable to several emerging “Creative Cities,” but holds special significance for the city considered the greatest creative success story, Austin.

A native Texan who lived and worked in the Austin area for more than twenty years, Joshua Long is Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at Franklin College Switzerland in Lugano, Switzerland. --Book Jacket.

Discusses the hauntings of various houses throughout the United States.

From automatons to zombies, many elements of fantasy and science fiction have been cross-pollinated with the Western movie genre. In its second edition, this encyclopedia of the Weird Western includes many new entries covering film, television, animation, novels, pulp fiction, short stories, comic books, graphic novels and video and role-playing games. Categories include Weird, Weird Menace, Science Fiction, Space, Steampunk and Romance Westerns.

Texas is a unique place that often leaves those outside of it scratching their head. Based on the podcast Texas: Slang for Crazy, this book explores some of the weird urban legends, famous figures, and customs of residents to the Lone Star State.

In 1839, Texas officials toasted their new capital of Austin, and its citizens never ran out of excuses for revelry. Austinites celebrate their homegrown and vibrant culture, renowned and innovative music, street life and collective quirkiness with pride. While world-class events now call the city home, in a culture that eschews conformity at every turn, Austin's underground social gatherings are what truly earn it bragging rights. Discover the grass-roots origins of the enigmatic eccentricity that has drawn people from all corners of Texas and now from the whole world. Feel the beat of drum circles at Eeyore's Birthday Party in April, sling puns at the annual O. Henry Pun-Off or share a meal with strangers at the monthly Perpetual Potluck Picnic--or Jim O's, as the locals say. Author Howie Richey explores the offbeat, exuberant culture and history of the city that started with a party that just didn't stop.