According to the Boston Herald, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who had originally been scheduled to return to Massachusetts from an 11-day family vacation in Utah, instead flew to Sea Island, Georgia where he will be attending something called the "Sportsmen Challenge."

Listen, with Ralph Reed running for Lieutenant Governor, we have enough problems of our own down here in Georgia. If he's not brought down by Jack Abramoff and is successful in the 2006 election, Reed is planning to run for Governor in 2010 and President in 2012 or 2016. So we don't need Mitt Romney running around here on "hunting expeditions." We understand that he's not very popular in Massachusetts, but please take him back and in return we promise not to send Newt Gingrich up your way any time soon.

Ah, life in Georgia. . . while driving home from work tonight, approaching the bridge where Windy Ridge Road crosses over I-75 on the northwest outskirts of Atlanta, I watched my odometer roll over to mile 1,000. It was a calmer, more serene moment that when it rolled over to 500, quite possibly because I was no longer listening to John Coltrane as I drove.

Look, I love Trane, as I've been blogging the last several weeks, but as I've said, the man's playing simply cannot function as "background music" and demands one's full attention. But while you're driving you can't always give it that, and there've been times when I've gotten out of my car all keyed up and feeling like I just drank a half-dozen four-shot lattes. After a month of nothing but hysterical saxophone in my car, I needed a change. Something a little bit more chill.

The Buddha Bar series are nothing if not chill. Now, I almost refrained from commenting on these CDs because everyone's going to think, "Oh, he's into Buddhism, so obviously he's into those Buddha Bar CDs as well, or anything with the word 'Buddha' in the title."

Hardly the case. In fact, when I first saw one of the disks on line, I thought, "Great! Another example of the commodification and commercialization of Buddhism." But curiousity got the better of me, and I downloaded it anyway (it turned out to be Buddha Bar III; there are now 7 CDs in the series).

Well, it turns out I kind of liked it, despite the title, despite the covers. A mix of ambient, world, acid jazz and a little new age, with a touch of electronica thrown in.

It seems that the Buddha Bar is the Studio 54 of Paris, and club owner Claude Challe is an idiosyncratic figure in France's cultural landscape. According to AMC, he opened the first unisex hair salon in Paris in 1964 and was a figurehead of the Parisian swinging '60s set. In 1968, he hung up his scissors and went to live in a commune in Sardinia before following the Hippy Trail to India, Nepal, and Indonesia. Always with an eye on how to turn a franc, Challe returned to Paris and immersed himself in the fashion business. He imported classic American urban styles, then picked up on what was happening in London and began importing clothes from the likes of Malcolm McLaren.

Challe then turned his attention to the Paris nightclub scene, opening Le Privé, an upmarket yet bohemian venue and the restaurant Le Centre Ville. The success of these ventures allowed him to become involved in running Les Bains Douches, a fading punk venue that he turned into Paris's premier night spot. It was the sort of place where he and Jack Nicholson would buddy up and chase women.

Of Tunisian descent, Challe's father was a rabbi who shifted the family to Paris when Challe was three. He claims that those early years — the mix of Arabic sounds, Jewish mysticism and French culture — shaped his destiny. Following his roots, Challe became involved with the Buddha Bar in 1998. A monument to Parisian chic, Buddha Bar was a deluxe restaurant dominated by a giant Buddha statue and surrounded by a bar serving sushi and cocktails. Challe was resident DJ and by blending his musical influences — house, ambient, North African, Asian, and a touch of French pop — he created soundscapes of mellow beauty. As more and more patrons asked for mix tapes of what Challe was playing — including Madonna and Princess Di — he issued the first Buddha Bar in 1999. Its success caused Challe to follow it with Buddha Bar II and so on. Challe now not only hangs out with celebrities but gets hired to DJ at events like Celine Dion's wedding and the Dalai Lama's Parisian appearances.

So what do the CDs sound like? Each volume is actually a two-disk set, thematically split along the lines of "Dinner/Party" and "Dream/Joy." The first disc typically has a more new age, ethnic-fusion feel with songs that span from nouveau flamenco to ethereal, hypnotic vocal samples. Music for dining, pleasant and polite with exotic touches of world music, providing a backdrop for food and civilized conversation. The second disc is generally less ambient and more uptempo, and may veer off into ecstatic territory with percussion-heavy cuts. They can occasionally get cheesey: the second disk of Buddha Bar IV includes a version of Celia Cruz covering "I Will Survive," of all things, while VI provides a rendition of "Whatever Lola Wants" by Sarah Vauhan.

Overall, they provide very soothing music for crossing I-75 on one's 1,000th mile, and are interesting to listen to if one chooses to give them one's attention, and forgettable in that's your preference.