Perhaps you know of Buddhist teacher Ethan Nichtern and his first book, One City: A Declaration of Interdependence. (A great book that I was truly honored to work on back when I was at Wisdom Publications.) I hope you do. Well, now Ethan has released his second book; only it’s not a dharma book — at least not in a traditional way. Ethan’s new book is a novel.

It’s titled Your Emoticons Won’t Save You, and it comes out in a variety of electronic formats this week. My congrats to Ethan; I know he poured a lot of himself into writing this book. But then, that’s how he does things. Read on for a description and a link. (more…)

You may have seen a post on Gawker today about how the ”UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Is Now a Meme.” Now, by way of Occupy Lulz on Facebook (and the Facebook friend who brought the below to my attention), comes this, um, arresting contribution to the meme:

The “Pepper Spraying Cop” continues his beat across the internet. You’ll find some of his many tragicomic manifestations at his new, dedicated Tumblr, which includes a few more run-ins with religion, Eastern and Western.

Did you know Bugs Bunny traveled to Tibet? It’s true, NYC’s Rubin Museum of Art tells us by way of its Facebook feed, providing this classic comic book cover as proof…

The Rubin offers us the opportunity to “learn more about how prevailing perceptions of Tibet and the visual narrative evolved over time.” Their exhibit, Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics opens December 9, 2011. Click here for details. You’ll see comics discussed here on the Horse, like the Green Lama, plus much more like, Milarepa and Dalai Lama comics(!).

PS: Comics or not, The Rubin would be a must-see anyway!

The latest entry from the ever-expanding realm of metal/Buddhism crossovers is the cover and title of the new EP by the great doom/drone band, Queen Elephantine:

The Tibetan-thangka-style art is one thing, but it doesn’t really get more metal than “Garland of Skulls,” does it?* (Queen Elphantine has dabbled in imagery from world religions and cultures, what with album titles like Surya and Kailash, and song titles like “Search for the Deathless State.” And you can download their record, Yatra (as in the Hindu term for “pilgrimage”) for free here.)

Hear the slow, dirgy, powerful track, “Potency,” from Garland of Skulls, here.

(See here for another recent — and recommended — Buddhism/metal crossover.)

* Note: I have dibs on the band name SkülCüp.

After the news yesterday that she’s a fan of the Grateful Dead and of Bob Marley, maybe this is little surprise. Still cool, though:

Visit the festival here, and read more about The Lady’s involvement here.

“Undoubtedly the most bizarre element of [this temple's] design is the presence of contemporary images throughout the interior. Images of the Predator from the Schwarzenegger film franchise, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Avatar, Keanu Reeves’ character in the Matrix, rocket ships, and others line the walls. The sea of hands holding skulls rising up towards the bridge to the temple is also very striking.”

Really. You’ve GOT to see this. It’s apparently quite real. (Funny thing is I had a photo of the temple’s exterior as desktop photo for a while, having no idea what was in the inside, until now.)

And here’s some video of the exterior:

(Tip of the hat to Scott Mitchell.)

Those who’ve been following (for example) Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha graphic novel and its film adaptation, or Deepak Chopra’s “Buddha” comic book, know that it’s not so new to mix Buddhism and comics. But it does seem to work, and one Buddhist temple is getting in on the act. As Culture Clash Daily reports:

This month [Japan's Ryohoji] Temple unveiled its new “moe Buddhist [signboard],” [rendered in an animation-based style] combining modern and ancient art. [This development came about after the temple's chief priest, Shoko Nakazato] displayed a picture of “moe” outside the temple to welcome passers by. Moe is a traditional Japanese slang word often for a young girl, and associated with innocence, love and caring.

According to Shoko Nakazato, young people and the media have been flocking to the temple ever since. (The temple’s website takes a similar approach, also depicting and blending moe and Buddhist imagery.) But as one visitor told The Japan Times, “I’m afraid that the temple will end up being just a mecca for fans of manga and anime, which is probably not the temple’s intention.” As for the artist behind the sign? She says that while she “was initially worried she might be doing something ‘indiscreet,’” [she] concluded that even if the sign was controversial, it might lead people to visit the temple and think about religion.”

As a former weird teen who read Zap Comix (in reprints) and today, a weird adult who meditates, I loved seeing this by-the-panels video of R. Crumb’s famous Mr. Natural, brought to my attention by the big-hearted Konchog Norbu, who writes: “Wow. You have GOT to watch the whole sequence of ‘Mr. Natural’s 719th Meditation’ set to the Mississippi Sheiks. May all our meditation sessions be like this! ‘Now to git down to it!!’”

Well, you heard the man: You have GOT to watch it. (Not really, but I enjoyed it and you might too.)

Thanks, as always, Konchog.

Peter Rowan was just on NPR — he’s a big deal in the bluegrass (and wider) music world. Did you know he is Buddhist? And even has a song, “Across the Rolling Hills,” with a Buddhist chant in it?

Hear it here, and get the story on it, in Fresh Air’s wonderful interview with him.

I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did. And for more about Peter Rowan, visit his website.

(And: Happy Thanksgiving.)

Thanks to friend and photographer Joshua Pickering for snapping and sharing this artsy-crafty oddity, seen at Topsfield, MA’s Topsfield Fair.

I can’t look at this without laughing. No disrespect; I think that’s a good thing.