'Just after midnight on a Saturday night in New York City, 30 couples and a handful of single women stand awkwardly about in a sprawling loft in the Garment District dressed in nothing but sheer chiffon togas and expensive underwear. The guests are all under 40, attractive and professional, and include an actress from a hit television series, two lawyers, a doctor, a screenwriter, a model and a professional blackjack player. But who does what or makes how much is not important tonight. Everyone is equal in his or her underwear. This is Caligula's Ball, an invitation-only orgy.'

Excerpt from New York, new hedonists by Tanya Corrin and Anna Moore in The Observer. Ten months on from 9/11 it seems certain New Yorkers still can't get enough of 'erotic parties'. Meanwhile, in the same paper, Bruce Springsteen reveals how the events and aftermath of 9/11 gave him a renewed sense of purpose on 'The Rising' his first studio album with the E-Street Band for 15 years, and which features 'a song cycle about duty, love, death, mourning and resurrection.'