Austin in Texas, and Portland, Oregon. They may be far apart but they share a slogan about keeping their city weird. So Attitude couldn’t resist heading off to two of the more curious spots in America…

Words and photography Jurriaan Teulings

PORTLAND, OR AUSTIN, TX

AUSTIN, TX

Leslie, the Queen of Austin, was a remarkable homeless person. Up until his death in 2012, he would always be seen flitting between the bars, theatres and tattoo parlours of 6th Street in the Texan capital, dressed in little more than a thong and high heels.

He always made time to unleash a saucy remark on passers-by, who loved having their picture taken with him. Leslie made three attempts to become mayor of the city, once finishing in second place -— and that in the capital of a notoriously conservative state in the south of the USA.

These days there is a memorial plaque on 6th Street to remind anyone walking by that Leslie was the embodiment of weird Austin, a city that has been profiling itself as one of the oddest cities in America pretty much for ever. The slogan “Keep Austin Weird”, which was dreamed up by small independent stores as part of their resistance to the rise of the major retail chains, is now worn with a sense of pride, and even extends to the local tourist agency.

Take Bouldin Creek Cafe, a restaurant in the south of the city. On Sunday afternoons, it’s a popular place to sit and have brunch, preferably accompanied by a stiff mimosa. The crowd is young and diverse, and the interior a hotchpotch of hipster-irony and Tex-Mex. That’s modern Texas for you.

But then there’s the noticeboard. Here, in addition to a large number of local indie bands (Austin’s other claim to fame is “Live Music Capital of the World”), there are an overwhelming number of upcoming events mentioned that you would have expected to be playing out in San Francisco sometime in the 1970s.

“The museum features two-headed chickens, a cyclops pig and a mermaid from Fiji”

One flyer announces “Celestial Ascension, a fashion and aerial performance” and is adorned with a photo of a female with feathercovered nipples, on a trapeze. The next billing notifies us of “Sunrise power yoga with ZuZu”. Then there is a chakra kids yoga summer camp and a sacred journey school of herbalism.

The noticeboard at Bouldin Creek is only the tip of the iceberg, however. The city certainly cherishes its offbeat, artistic vibe. There are even churches that have commissioned graffiti art for their walls. Esther’s Follies, a theatre awash with street art on 6th Street, features large windows just behind the stage that invite passing oddballs to take part in the vaudeville, conjuring, and stand-up shows on stage. And the supply doesn’t appear to ever run out.

Even though Leslie is no longer parading the streets, there are other homeless folk in fishnets. They patrol the pavement looking for a contribution from those passing the Museum of the Weird. This old-fashioned “dime museum” is a rare vestige of a phenomenon that was popular at the beginning of the 20th century: an attraction of the type that saw escape artist Harry Houdini flourish.

The museum is packed with tricks and fake attractions, such as two-headed chickens, a stillborn cyclops pig and a “real mermaid from Fiji”. At the back somewhere, a man without forearms who is “immune” to electricity serves as an old-style fairground attraction. He demonstrates his gift by licking live cables.