A Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers $50,000 bill. Design by Dave Sheridan, 1971. Courtesy Flashbak .
Fifty years ago, Amazon didn’t exist. Neither did social media, texts, or for that matter Adobe Illustrator. People drew their own posters, opined in zines, and shopped in stores. A culture driven by the face to face. So when the student population at UT nearly doubled between 1963 and 1983, it transformed Guadalupe into fertile ground. People’s Community Clinic started here, as did student organizations like the SDA and SDS , along with alternative publications ranging from The Rag to The Texas Observer. Folks just trying to make their way, exploring intersections.
STREET VENDING “It’s the only way a person without $5,000 from a loan can do a respectable business on their own.” Jeweler and Artist Bob Gottschall quoted in The Rag, Oct 7, 1974.
Counterculture types would throw down a blanket, spread their wares (think incense, tie-dye and homemade jewelry) and commune with the walkers.
Jerry Delony and Tommy Palotta walk the drag and debate whether the moon landing’s a hoax. Slacker , Richard Linklater, 1991.
All the commerce going on outside their stores exasperated many of the merchants, who brought in lawyers and pressured city leaders to clear the path to their door, offering all sorts of suggestions.
“Mr. Bill Knalle, with the law firm of Stayton, Maloney, Hearne and Babb, stated that his client, owners of the northwest corner of 23rd and Guadallupe Streets (Hal’s Bootery location), would oppose any appropriation of sidewalk or that portion of the street to which they owned title. He added they would bring suit against any temporary or permanent appropriation regardless of how taken, except condemnation.” Austin City Council minutes, Aug 24, 1974.
The general idea? Corral the counterculture. Create what some referred to as “the reservation.” The 23rd Street Market. The anchor of a scene. A group of art students decided they wanted to paint a mural. Kerry Awn picks up the story.
Venice in the Snow, The Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad, 1970
Kerry Awn became part of the Armadillo Art Squad, and also co-founded The Uranium Savages. He was a regular with comedy troupe Esther’s Follies for 30 years, and voted Austin’s funniest person 10 years running by The Austin Chronicle. Awn currently lives in Alpine. The artist quoted at the head of this article, Bob Gottschall, has gone on to a 50-year career as a sculptor — testimony to the importance of helping young artists find a way to support themselves.
gottschallsculpture.com, © 2022 by Robert B. Gottschall
HOW TO HUSTLE “When I was growing up, after church, everybody shook hands and would say, 'Hi. How are you?' I always heard it, even at the funeral home when there was some dead person who died of old age. The undertaker said to me, and I was just a little boy, 'Hi. How are you?' That's how that started. Then, when I worked at AstroWorld, I found a container in the garbage that held rubber frogs. It had a picture of a frog and it said on it, 'Hi. How are you?' So I decided to name my album Hi, How Are You." Daniel Johnston, The Austin Chronicle, Jan 19, 2018.
courtesy Atlas Obscura
1984 Daniel Johnston would get off work at McDonalds and walk up and down the drag handing out homemade cassettes to anyone who would take them, boasting that some day he’d be famous and they’d be thankful. Johnston decorated his cassettes with a hand-drawn frog named “Jeremiah”.
1985 Charming, quirky and tireless, he talks his way onto a popular MTV show.
courtesy MTV, 1985.
1992 Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain shows up at the MTV Music Awards in a t-shirt featuring Johnston’s frog.
1993 A record store commissions Johnston to paint a mural.
In addition to “Hi, How Are You” Johnston also drew the flying eyeball you see to the left in this 1993 photo. It was painted over within months. Courtesy The Austin Chronicle, Image Courtesy Sean McGowan.
2007 Something interesting happened: Smartphones. Suddenly everyone was documenting every single thing they did all the time. Instagram launched in 2010 . Après le 'gram, le déluge de grenouilles. "It's one of the most visited places in Austin and one of the most photographed places in Austin," says Austin Creative Alliance CEO John Riedie, adding "It is all over social media." Just type #danieljohnston into Instagram: 57,866 hits. The Austin Chronicle, May 26, 2023 .
2018 The Hi How Are You Project launches, a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed to educate young adults on mental health.
2019 Daniel Johnston dies of a suspected heart attack at the age of 58.
2023 Developers raze the block but keep Johnston’s mural. Everything else that was there is gone.
Photo by Alan Berg, June 2024.
"The significance of the 'Hi, How Are You,' Mural lies in the shared experiences and expression of mental health challenges through art and music. Whether it is Daniel Johnston, Kurt Cobain or the @hihowareyouproject, artists and organizations can use their creativity and platforms to bring attention to mental health issues, fostering understanding, empathy, and dialogue." Street Art Muralist Organization (SAMO), quoted in The Austin Chronicle, May 26, 2023.
THE RIPPLE OF A BUTTERFLY’S WING In 2004, the city pioneered a new program in West Campus called the University Neighborhood Overlay, which gave developers tax breaks if they would build high rises that included affordable housing. That spurred a construction boom. In 2007 the 23rd Street Market closed for several months while fiber optic and electrical lines were routed through the gap between the buildings. The trees were removed, the area paved.
“(The artists) all had to leave, it looked like we’d been bombed from the air for the better part of a year. … We never really recovered from that.” 23rd Street Vendor Randy Eckels quoted in The Daily Texan, 2024.
Here’s the thing — cities evolve, and by most accounts the University Neighborhood Overlay has been a success, adding more than 1,000 affordable units to West Campus and subsidizing improvements ranging from wider sidewalks and bike racks to additional benches and trees.
“…despite the program enabling a massive increase in visible density across West Campus, current research suggests that this growth has actually helped keep rents in the neighborhood more stable than other parts of Austin — in fact, when adjusted for inflation the average rent inside the UNO bonus area is now $204 less than rents in 2004 when the program was first passed.” James Rambin, Towers, April 18, 2024.
Look at the drag as a mirror, not only reflecting our growth but also the change in the way we connect and define community.
WANNA SHOP, SELL OR SWAP?
The past lives on every Sunday from 12-6 at Guad Vintage Market .
Austin Flea moves around town, this weekend there are markets both Saturday and Sunday.
The Front Market is an independent marketplace and fair focusing on female and queer creatives and their businesses. The next gathering is November 23rd and 24th, one of two each year hosted by the nonprofit community space Future Front .
On we go.
Alan Berg, Publisher.
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