Buddha Bar

The Buddha-Bar is a bar, restaurant, and hotel franchise created by restaurateur Raymond Visan and DJ and interior designer Claude Challe, with its original location having opened in Paris, France in 1996. The Buddha Bar "soon became a reference among foreign yuppies and wealthy tourists visiting the city", and "has spawned numerous imitators", becoming popular in part because of the DJ's choice of eclectic, avant-garde music. It became known internationally for issuing the Buddha Bar compilation albums, which are popular compilations of lounge, chill-out music and world music, also under the Buddha Bar brand, released by George V Records. Buddha Bar "has made a name for itself with its Zen lounge music CDs and remains a hit – especially with tourists". Locations have since been opened in a number of other countries, although not without controversy arising from the theme.

Theme

The original restaurant is a Buddha-themed "upscale bar-restaurant with an orientalist 'lounge' ambience" serving Asian cuisine, with a two-story dining area dominated by a large statue of Buddha, and an upstairs bar in the form of a large, ornate dragon. The theme was inspired by the discovery of the space to be used, an antique basement archive with a mezzanine, "which suggested to the architects the idea of an oriental temple and its Buddha".

Buddha Bar compilation albums

The Buddha Bar compilation albums are a widely acclaimed series of compilation albums issued by the Buddha Bar bar, restaurant, and hotel franchise created by restaurateur Raymond Visan and DJ and interior designer Claude Challe in Paris, France. Following its establishment, the Buddha Bar "became a reference among foreign yuppies and wealthy tourists visiting the city", and "has spawned numerous imitators", becoming popular in part because of the DJ's choice of eclectic, avant-garde music. It became known internationally for issuing popular compilations of lounge, chill-out music and world music, also under the Buddha Bar brand, released by George V Records. Buddha Bar began issuing compilations in 1999, and has since "made a name for itself with its Zen lounge music CDs and remains a hit – especially with tourists".

In 2001, a Billboard Magazine critic placed the compilation in his "top ten" musical events of the year, stating of proprietor Claude Challe that "[t]he legendary master of pop and dance music in France has aroused the attention of the global chill-out community with this series of mixed compilations", and concluding that "Buddha Bar is not only a good restaurant in France but also one of the best music experiments to come out of France in the past few years". On a more critical note, the Oxford Handbook of Music Revival describes the music of the Buddha Bar collection as "close to muzak-like mixtures with neither recognizable original components nor clearly identifiable new structures". Another commentator wrote:

Dubai

Dubai (/duːˈbaɪ/ doo-BY; Arabic: دبي‎ Dubayy, Gulf pronunciation: [dʊˈbɑj]) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates that make up the country. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature. The city of Dubai is located on the emirate's northern coastline and heads up the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Dubai is to host World Expo 2020.

Dubai has emerged as a global city and business hub of the Middle East. It is also a major transport hub for passengers and cargo. By the 1960s Dubai's economy was based on revenues from trade and, to a smaller extent, oil exploration concessions, but oil was not discovered until 1966. Oil revenue first started to flow in 1969. Dubai's oil revenue helped accelerate the early development of the city, but its reserves are limited and production levels are low: today, less than 5% of the emirate's revenue comes from oil. The emirate's Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services. Dubai has recently attracted world attention through many innovative large construction projects and sports events. The city has become iconic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Dubai has been criticised for human rights violations concerning the city's largely South Asian workforce. Dubai's property market experienced a major deterioration in 2008–09 following the financial crisis of 2007–08, but the emirate's economy has made a return to growth, with a projected 2015 budget surplus.

Dubai (disambiguation)

Dubai is a major city and one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates.

Dubai may also refer to:

See also

Shawn Daivari

Dara Daivari (born April 30, 1984) is an American professional wrestler currently performing on the independent circuit as Shawn Daivari. He is best known for his work with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as simply Daivari and with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as Sheik Abdul Bashir.

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Daivari grew up admiring Mick Foley and Bret Hart. His childhood hero was Shawn Michaels. He participated in his first professional wrestling match at age 15. He started his career in the upper midwest independent scene. He is known for representing Iran for international title matches

On October 19, 1998, Daivari appeared on Nitro as a fan being interviewed by Mike Tenay.

He appeared on the February 26, 2003 episode of Explosion and wrestled a tag team match against Mike Sanders and Glenn Gilberti with Ken Anderson. He also appeared on the October 5, 2003 episode of Sunday Night Heat as Shawn Daivari, losing his match against Tommy Dreamer. He also made four appearances for independent promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) between April and July 2004.