I had to think awhile on how to respond to KeyDog.
I can really see what you're saying. Funny, how when I think of Austin I think of the Austin *I* knew when I lived there (late 80s) which is very different from the Austin of today.
Austin is, to me, Whole Foods:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/history.html
Hippy Hollow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_Hollow
Waterloo Records:
http://www.waterloorecords.com/waterlooinf.html
The Drag without a Barnes and Nobles or a Starbucks:
http://www.6street.com/6s_pg_guadalupe.htm
Austin City Limits:
http://www.pbs.org/klru/austin/
Chuy's:
http://www.chuys.com/culture.html
Barton Springs Pool:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/bartonsprings.htm
Stevie Ray:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Ray_Vaughan
Kerbey Lane Cafe:
http://www.kerbeylanecafe.com/
'Ritas at The Oasis:
http://www.oasis-austin.com/gallery.html
And a whole bunch of now-70-year-old hippies (I won't say how I'm related ;-))
Then "Silicon Valley" moved in, and now people hang out drinking lattes at the IKEA store and Whole Foods is a national chain with a NYSE ticker symbol. *Sigh*
The slogan "Keep Austin Weird" is an attempt to hang on to what made Austin special in the first place. The now-middle-aged of us who embraced the culture (begun by the now-70-year-old hippies) and who remember when Mo-Pac was an easy commute miss "the good old days".
It's still there, beneath the vanilla corporate chains. I hope you can find it.