Keeping Austin PLENTY Weird

My friend Milton recently gave me a cool book which is set mostly in the hill country. I'm a relative newcomer to the area, having owned property there for only seven years. So the book is a fascinating insight for me into one piece of what "Keep Austin Weird" is referring to.

Jim Simons' life story is named after his beloved dog Molly, who definitely tolerated Jim as only a dog can do. Jim's story is bizarre, funny, tragic, and heartwarming at the same time. Kind of like the life most of us lead, only AMPLIFIED.

He is a precariously balanced mixture of Libertarian, left-winger, alcoholic, and 1960's hippie "save the world" type. OK, sometimes not so balanced. Both types also rolled into a single person, the author, who incredibly enough is also a lawyer. You KNOW this is an autobiography because it's too weird to make up.

So this very unusual guy naturally seems most at home in a very unusual part of the country. Which is a VERY unusual part of Texas. "Keep Austin Weird" is about more than just the built environment I've ranted about previously. It is about people like Jim Simons who can feel at home there, and fit in where being weird is just fine. It's about hanging out at a favorite watering hole dressed like, well, crap. And maybe even about getting through a day without going to McDonald's, Wal-Mart, or Starbucks, and furiously checking off our things to do lists. Thanks Jim, and keep on being weird.