Big thanks to the reader (who shall remain anonymous) who sends this one on:
“[I met this guy who] started a new tequila company called Karma Tequila. I played dumb and asked him what karma was, and he said, ’cause and effect.’ And I asked what cause and effect had to do with a name for a tequila brand, and he just said that it was the only name that they all agreed sounded great. So no reason, really. He did mention that, in the name of karma, the company gives back some of their proceeds to causes.
“I exercised a lot of control trying to keep my trap shut when he was going off about the name: ‘Imagine it branching out into branded cocktails: the Karmatini, the Karmapolitan, and get this … the Karmarita!’ I almost keeled over!”
…Yes, folks: “Karma Tequila.” Of course, right? …and you can see it on their site, here. I particularly like the “store” which includes the simple selling-line, “Buy Karma.” (Okay, maybe “like” isn’t the right word…)
Wade of The Middle Way snapped this “Buddhist message I found floating around last weekend” and sent it to share with you:
He also sends on this “tacky one-shot” Dharma-Burger from a conference he photographed, for a book that promises “visual enlightenment for the web:
Lastly, he submits to Altar Madness with this shot of a makeshift altar he deployed while in a hotel in San Francisco:
Big, big thanks, Wade!
Thanks to the always-there Kin, who contributes this shot of a mural found in Boston’s Chinatown:
It’s a strange and busy, thangka-by-way-of-Keith Haring affair, put up in 1988 for the “South Cove Community Health Center Tobacco Control Mural Project,” which explains the congested, smoky details that are found it in it. Like this one:
Weird and cool.
OK. Not really. But kinda. Check it out. We got an email from none other than the very venerable monk, Ven. Amaranatho, wherein he sent this shot and the below explanation:
“Hi There,
“we did this graffiti with the kids and young people and Amaravati Buddhist Monastery family camp 2002. We’ll probably do another one this year. It was done on the end of the tool workshop at the monastery.
“the theme of the family camps 2002 was Annica – change .
“It says ‘fireman – the eye is burning…’ The fireman being a reference to the Buddha and the fire sermon which we must of spoke about [then]… it was a long time ago.
“The fireman – telling you how it is and following what the buddha is teaching and it will put the fire out! A fireman…Flames representing change…”
And there’s more, as Ven. kindly points out. The below shot is from a bunch found here, all the results of kids being egged on by Buddhist monks to do graffiti. What a world, huh?
What a great, it’s-actually-getting-better-all-the-time world.
Reader Liam K wrote to send us this a link to this shot, “of what is apparently banksy’s work”:
It sure looks like it. And it’s quite a statement, too.
Thanks, Liam.
(Oh, and while we’re at it, the page that Liam found this on also contains a link to another interesting street piece by someone else.)
Thanks to Derek of the Dharma Bum Center in San Diego for this photo of a local mural.
For more shots of what we like to call Dharmaglyphs (meaning, examples of Buddhist or Buddhist-inspired graf), check our articles on the Hoodie Monks and Dolla, the old Dharmaglyphs archive, and of course, the Drive-Thru.
Well, well, well.
We were browsing a local music store and happened upon Issue Eight of Peel
magazine. Good thing we did: it features an interview with none other than Dolla, one of the Horse’s favorite street artists.
There are two versions of the magazine. The basic one comes with a bunch of stickers from various artists bound in and is certainly cool. Much cooler, though, is the polybagged “Limited Edition,” which includes about 20 additional stickers, including the “Dolla Lama” one shown here.
Very cool. Congrats to Dolla.
Read the Horse’s interview with him here.
The new (June 07, so it’s a little old) issue of LA Yoga magazine features a cover-interview with Lou Reed, in which he talks about his new album of “meditation music,” and also his relationship with Tibetan Buddhist teacher Mingyur Rinpoche:
“…he’s my teacher for flat-out meditation and the why’s and when’s of everything.”
The magazine also features an interview with Brad Warner, he of the infamous book Hardcore Zen, the infamous SuicideGirls-hosted blog of the same name, and the infamous new book, Sit Down and Shut Up.
Read here for the Horse’s take on the SG-hosted blog (our most commented-upon article yet), or here for “Practice Easy,” a recent piece about the generation of teachers of which Warner is an undeniable part.
