Farewell, Sandwich Man …you will be missed.

I recently learned of the passing of my friend Michael Abedin. For readers that didn’t have the good fortune to know him, Mike was one of the elder statesmen of the Austin, Texas “Keep Austin Weird” movement …though he wasn’t particularly interested in keeping Austin weird, per se: “I was one of the people making it weird in the first place,” he said.

As the owner, editor, and publisher of Austin All-Natural Magazine, Mike was something of an Austin fixture. He was a teaching martial artist, a radio disc jockey, a newsman, a film actor, and a legendary raconteur. As a young man in the early 1970s, Mike had once manned a Salvation Sandwich^® cart selling cellophane-wrapped sandwiches with Constant Comment^® iced tea and honey from a cooler in front of the School of Fine Arts Building on the University of Texas campus. Handsome, witty, and charming, Mike had soon attracted a dedicated fan base that made it impossible for him to go anywhere in the city without being spotted: “Hey, Sandwich Man!” In public, a smile from Mike — “the flashing of the the pearly whites,” he called it — was enough to garner instant invitations to the very best and most discriminating parties about the town.     Continue reading →