The Pittsburgh band White Wives has released their new video, “Hungry Ghosts” — something many Buddhists will know about, but which the great music site Consequence of Sound is covering, too:

Small mouths, bloated bellies, thin necks. No, this is not a description of our high school prom dates but of the fabled hungry ghost, a supernatural being often filled with more desire than one could possibly consume. Completely driven by unfulfilled cravings, they want nothing more than satisfaction that’s never quite enough. Sound familiar? Pittsburgh-based White Wives dive head first into this age-old yet always relevant theme in their video for “Hungry Ghost”, a garage-punk/alt-rock anthem that serves as the third track off their debut LP, Happeners.

Here’s the video — and head over to CoS for more info and White Wives tour dates.

White Wives – Hungry Ghost from Cluster 1 on Vimeo.

Considering that meditation has played an ongoing and meaningful role in the Occupy protests — note for example the related coverage my colleagues and I have been posting on the Shambhala Sun blog — it will be interesting to see how Buddhists respond to this Conan segment from Thursday night, in which Triumph the Insult Comic Dog takes on Occupy Wall Street and a meditator gets in his line of fire. …You’ve been warned. But will you laugh anyway?

If “Dharma-Burgers” are incidents of Buddhism and/or Buddhist ideas colliding with mass culture, then certainly “Buddhify,” featured on the great Lifehacker site today, qualifies:

There’s not anything so new, in and of itself, about there being a meditation app. So why might Buddhify be notable? (more…)

Barn Owl, one of my very favorite musical acts these days, played a show hosted by the SFZC. Watch, listen, enjoy. It’s two great tastes that taste great together!

Barn Owl from auraloptic on Vimeo.

Another act that played SFZC was Date Palms. Click here for that.

Last night, Chef Jose Andres joined Coco to talk rum and other concoctions. While we’re told by the Conan’s Facebook page that “Buddha” appears in the segment, that’s not quite right. It’d be more accurate to say that it’s Hotei, aka, the “fat Buddha,” or the “happy Buddha” who makes the cameo here, at around the 5:20 mark. Also appearing are lots of disembodied replicas of his body parts — all made of Jell-O.

This is not the first time Hotei and rum have made a pop-culture appearance together; see the entry for Pyrat rum on this page of the Dharma-Burger archives. But it’s almost certainly the oddest.

In this video, Harry Belafonte singlehandedly invents “the meditation defense” — without so much as speaking a word:

Ah yes, the “meditation defense.” I see it catching fire by way of bored students and employees everywhere.

(And, really, it’s not just what the anchor says here. Belafonte’s handlers have now publicly stated that he was really was meditating, and not sleeping.)

(Or Kanzeon, or Kannon, or Chenrezig, or Kuan Yin…)

Thanks to James Morgan for this one.

See also: Separated at Re-birth: Historic, Halloween Edition

If you have 19 minutes to spare, you’ll likely love “Altered Focus: Burma.” Its makers describe this sweet little film as a look at “three filmmakers and skateboarders, including rider Ali Drummond, as they travel across Yangon and Mandalay. The film explores the reaction to this activity whilst touching on the political situation there.” Watch it here:

Altered Focus: Burma from Hot Knees Media on Vimeo.

So I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia now. There are many things to love about the place, but I think I really understood I could love it here when I visited in September and got to see the legendary drummer Jerry Granelli play a solo show. It rocked my world, and I knew that any place that could sustain someone like him would surely have plenty to offer little old me.

Happily, there’s a great documentary film that does a much better job of showing who Granelli is — and what his contributions to both dharma and music are — than I ever could. I found it online and hope you’ll watch it. Here it is, in six installments. Enjoy.

Jerry Granelli: In the Moment, Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

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.