Slacker is one of my favorite movies. Is the Austin of today still anything like that?
No, but some things are the same. Austin still has this very friendly and curious vibe that encourages inquisitive exploration. The environment is still the same (the lakes, the greenbelts, the creeks and rivers) but they are more overrun with people now.
Some of the old Austin still exists but these places are slowly being replaced by condos, typically. For example, I just read that Dirty Martin's hamburgers is going to close.
The trick to finding Austin is not going to places like Uchi and Barley Swine and whatever dolled-up glam joint opens next week. No offense, but those places can fuck right off and you'll never find the real Austin there.
You have to go to places like Pollo Regio, or maybe talk to the waitress at the last Magnolia Cafe who's worked there for 25 years. Go to the G&S Lounge, try to have a conversation with Jimmy and not get kicked out. If he likes you then you're OK. Go to the Cloak Room bar across from the Texas capitol and ask the grizzled bartender to tell you wild stories about what goes on across the street.
Pre-internet Austin was cheap and an intellectually stimulating zoo, nestled within an extraordinarily beautiful natural environment. The low cost of living allowed the Slacker culture to thrive. That doesn't exist anymore, rent is too high which means everyone has to hustle constantly, but the friendly, curious vibe still exists.
The characters in that movie were marginalized so if you come here expecting them to be the mainstream you didn't get the movie.
Sure it was. I wandered around Austin and ran into people exactly like that all day long in the early 1990s.
Yeah but no one in their right mind would do that. That's verging on a straw man argument.
edit: I stand corrected. People are stupid.