Reader Jeremy Dugosh let us know about the hyperstylized NYC restaurant Buddakan, which, according to its press release, is all about "modern Asian cuisine and dramatic atmosphere":

The 16,000 square foot restaurant seats 320 people in several areas, each with its own individual ambiance. At the center is a chandelier-lit, opulent and grandiose dining room that contains a central, communal dining table and leads to intimate dining areas as well as The Golden Library -- a private room with glowing walls lined with golden books. Buddakan’s decorative theme parallels the menu concept; it is Chinese meets Parisian meets industrial New York City. Reproductions of Renaissance Bacchanal paintings and Buddha icons hang next to Louis XIV curiosity cabinets.

Their website is hyperstylized, too, but a little wonky. You can check it out for yourself here.

Thanks again to Jason McGill.

This one just HAS to go here. It's promotional "wallpaper" for the new documentary Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed.

Dharma of Star Wars author and Horse friend Matthew Bortolin was of course interviewed for this film, and appears in a longer version. (The History Channel is showing a cut version.)

There's no point in our attempting to write about this so long as Matthew's out there, so here are his comments, as found on his MySpace blog.

In this web-ad, part of a campaign for the technology company Cisco, we see a gaggle of young Tibetan monks gathered around a laptop -- surely we're supposed to assume it's got a wireless hookup.

We see this kind of imagery a lot, don't we? "Buddhist Monks Doing Western Things" is practically a genre unto itself. We see this approach in ads and magazine covers again and again. Apparently it sells -- but who's buying?

What's interesting is how easily this approach can come off as somewhat condescending (even if it's unintentional, as it -- probably -- most often is). This ad is a good example.

Just look at the tag-line: "Welcome to the human network." It's not entirely crazy to read that as "Hey, you kooky third-worlders, nice to see you finally getting with the program." And jeez, the irony: if Tibetan monks don't have a jump on being plugged into the "Human Network," who does?

We bought the latest issue of GQ, of all things, for the Stephen Colbert article. (Not that we need much of a reason to buy magazines. They're pretty much our number one expense.)

Turns out the Colbert article was, surprisingly, just okay. But there were a couple more surprises.

First, on page 175, in a piece titled "The Self-Reclamation Vacation," there was a recommendation for Shambhala Mountain Center ("America's most prominent Buddhist meditation center"), and a separate bit where a writer wrote how a detoxing colonic left him feeling "fit as a Rinpoche." That's a first.

Then, on page 186, there's a "GQ&A" with "the world's second most famous Buddhist," Richard Gere ("His Holiness, the Most American Gigolo").

It's a good little piece. (Strange, though, that Gere's appearance wasn't worth a cover-mention.) In it, the actor talks a good deal about his Buddhism and his involvement towards upholding Tibet's people and culture.

He even shares a humble little anecdote about his book of photographs -- did you know he's a really good photographer? -- published to benefit Tibet: "I worked really hard on this book. [. . .] And yet His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] told me, urgently and repeatedly, that he thinks my photographs are crap."

All in all, it's a typically charming good turn from Gere, who really needs one what with all that nasty "burning him in effigy" business that he's been trying to contend with lately. If you don't know him, or think you do and don't like him, it's probably worth checking out. Of course, you'll have to find it -- pound for pound, it seems like GQ has nearly as many ads as Vogue.

We also liked the intro paragraph: "Since his first big role as Mr. Goodbar thirty years ago, Richard Gere has served two masters: the Dalai Lama and the false gods of Hollywood. How does he square both?"  . . . A fine, and -- dare we say, even Horse-y --question.

Thanks to hawkeyed reader Jason McGill for these two shots. He writes:

[These are from] of a nightclub here in Providence, called "Tantric."' It's fat buddha with martini. never seen anything like it.

it was a weird angle to shoot, so neither are great photos, but you get the point! I peeked inside and they actually had impressive buddha statues in the lobby. a nightclub! some serious vajra shit.

Yes, this seems to be a recurring theme -- "Buddha Bars" and "Buddha Lounges" (not to mention Buddhas on bottles of rum) keep cropping up in Burgery ways.

This is a great one. Thanks again, Jason.

Cover painting by Harish Johari

In explaining the cover for this May's forthcoming CD from Canada's classic power-trio, Rush, drummer Neil Peart says:

"To my surprise, [the title] 'Snakes and Arrows' called up several links to something called 'Leela, The Game of Self Knowledge,' or, incredibly, 'The Game of Snakes and Arrows.' [Related, in ways, to the game modern Americans know as 'Chutes and Ladders.']

"Long story short, I followed that trail with growing enthusiasm, and learned that Leela (Hindi for 'the game') was at least 2,000 years old, and had been created by Buddhist saints and sages as a game of karma -- like many games, a metaphor for life. The player rolls a single die, said to be affected by his or her karma, and moves around the board. Each square on the grid represents a stage of consciousness or existence, and the player is raised to higher levels by arrows, and brought low by snakes."

Reader Michel submitted this one. He writes:

Here it is, my first contribution. It's not a new album (1991), but it's a good one and the Mouse Studios artwork is excellent (as usual.), but some of the accessories are a bit . . . unsual, not to mention the unusual . . underwear, but I like it.

Tantric art may be full of surprises.

Thanks for sending it, Michel.

Thanks again to regular reader Gary Steinberg for this one. It's the cover for "The Search," by Son Volt, a pretty good band if "an amalgam of the Byrds, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, the blues, murder ballads, old-time country and other indigenous elements" sounds good to you.

About the album's name and cover, GAry also sends this quote from Son Volt's Jay Farrar:

I guess I felt like "the search" sort of encapsulates a loosely based philosophy that I've fallen into over the last couple decades. I guess that it's more about enjoying the journey than having any big destination in mind.

If that's not "Buddhist" (and it may be) it might be at least, as our friend Josh Bartok says, "Buddhistic.".

This is another one we're not sure about. Reader Hal of the Vultures Peak Center for Freestyle Rodeo Slackline Research posits that The Band's use of this Buddha imagery in this 1972 cover is probably simply based in the Beats' then-blossoming interest in the Dharma.

A fine theory, but if anyone knows more, drop us a line.

We keep finding more and more connections between Buddhism and heavy metal. You'll seem them throughout the Dharma-Burger pages, and also in articles like this one and this one.

No, the music from this band, the subtly- named Total Fucking Destruction, isn't Buddhist. (We know you're surprised.)

First the Rage Against the Machine album cover (we've mentioned that one before) and now this. Have the music marketing mavens somehow determined that immolation sells?

And then, of course, there's this one.

(Okay, it's not real. But its silliness is admirable.)

Found here.

This one in from a reader who is too kind:

I'm Tom Chapman, a reader from England. Firstly, I love your site. It's fresh, succinct and witty and exactly what I thought I might never find out there. So, thanks for that! Not quite sure this qualifies as a Dharma-Burger, but here's a picture of a boardgame, Gift of Enlightenment, that I found in "The world's oldest magic shop" in the picturesque town of Stratford Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace and as a result possibly England's oldest theme park).

It reads "The Life Healing game for up to six players: Some treasures are worth discovering!"

I didn't have much time to read the packaging but I thought of The Worst Horse immediately and took a snap with my phone. I have been wondering ever since, however, just what was in that box!

Thanks, Tom!

Thanks again to Gary Steinberg for yet another submission: this one, an animated online banner ad.

It is of course based not on The Buddha, but on the Buddhist figure Hotei, as so many Dharma-Burgers seem to be.

For better or for worse, kids, this is how some envision "the Buddha": not just morbidly obese, but, apparently, also Caucasian and languishing on a pile of gold bricks. Like he's some kind of wish- fulfilling Jabba the Hutt / Santa Claus hybrid.

A million bows to Horse reader Gary Steinberg for this one. It's an ad for GT Bicycles, who happen to make great bikes. They apparently know how to make a good ad, too. This one just may be our favorite Dharma-Burger of all time (so far).

In fact, when Gary sent it, our response conveyed not only incredulous thanks, but also that the biggest challenge would be to find a way to write about it in less than ten thousand words. Because, really: we could go on and on. But let's give it a shot.

(If you're wondering what the copy under the headline says, it reads: "Spiritually enlightened, physically pure. On the road to righteousness, one machine moves faster than all others.")

So what makes this ad such a fave? Let us count at least some of the ways.

First of all, it's great-looking. Well-composed, well-shot. Lovely typography in the headline. And notice that they didn't go with any faux-Tibetan or "Asian" typefaces. They let their image feel contemporary, and they let it do most of the talking. (There are lessons here, advertisers!)

Secondly, it's playful, but not cheesy. They're not actually "selling" (read: capitalizing on) some kind of phony, exotic, Eastern mysticism or spirituality, much less a legit one. They are, like Eminem would say, "just playing."

Thirdly, dig the details. What's up with the color of the monk's robes? They're not black, or burgundy, or saffron, or any of the colors we're used to seeing on monks of any authentic tradition. They're yellow and blue -- GT's corporate colors. Can you get any more tongue-in-cheek than that? . . . Well, yes, you can: while you can't see it well here, a better look at the ad reveals that our bald-headed friend's shoulder and arm are very densely tattooed. Though, as regular readers of the Horse know, plenty of Buddhists have tattoos. Still, you have to doubt that that's commonly known.

What GT does seem to know for sure is that it's not some perceived "Dharmic" quality (if they even know what Dharma is) that their customers are going to connect with here. So they've employed interesting and surprising juxtapositions (levitating bike; tattooed monk), and balanced them out with design that speaks in the "visual vocabulary" of modern consumers. Good for them.

Of course, there will be purists that will shudder at the sight of this ad. But then, there will always be. And that's cool. But the Horse is definitely not among them.

A little bit ago we showed you this dress, recently worn by the actress Bebe Neuwirth. (See "Buddha steps out, Part One," below.)

Since then it's come to our attention twice more. First up is this response from Horse reader Ellen, who helpfully adds some context:

Bebe Neuwirth is wearing a brand-new Vivienne Tam design -- I saw that dress on the runway during Fashion Week in NYC a month or so ago. I remember wondering if it would look good on me! ha!

Anyway it is brand new - literally just came out of the atelier. Very au courant, if not quite dharmic. Or is it?
 

But Star magazine, it turns out, has a different take on Bebe's fashion-choice. In fact, their hired "Style Stalkers" come off as incredibly catty (right). Shocker.

And by the way: "Buddha-pest"? LAME.