According to some Italian scientists, romantic love is caused by an increase in the amount of a protein in the brain called nerve growth factors, and typically only lasts for about a year.

I wonder if this means that a cure is on the horizon?

Here’s a quick plug for my friend Djurdja Watson’s website, where she showcases her high fashion jewellery collections. Djurdja’s jewellery is regularly seen in magazines and at fashion shows, and various celebrities frequent her boutique shop on London’s Portobello Road.

I just revisited the website of Banksy, self-professed “art terrorist,” and it was a very entertaining 5 minute web browsing session. Check it out.

Last Friday (11/11) I went to see Bauhaus at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Bauhaus were a band that I listened to in the mid eighties when I was a goth, and although they were never my favourite goth band, they were pretty much the archetypical goth band, so I thought that it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

It was actually fairly entertaining. Pete Murphy had a pretty good stage presence, although his voice wasn’t always as strong as it could have been, and although still suitably skinny and gaunt, with age he reminded me a bit of my Uncle Derek. The Nokia Theater was packed, as both nights were completely sold out.

After a suitably spooky intro, the band came out onto the dark stage and the excellent lightshow started. The sound quality was also very good. They played a bunch of old numbers, such as Hair of the Dog, Kick in the Eye, She’s in Parties, A God in an Alcove, Hollow Hills, In the Flat Field etc., some of which I hadn’t heard for twenty years. They played for about an hour, then went off stage until the crowd brought them back for the first encore. This included a version of Telegram Sam that wasn’t that great, and ended with Ziggy Stardust, after which they left the stage again.

But the house lights stayed down, and the crowd started demanding another encore, shouting “Bela! Bela! Bela!” until they came out one last time and played their biggest and best hit, Bela Lugosi’s Dead. This was a great track to end on, and I was surprised to notice/remember how much dub reggae influence was evident on the track.

Overall, it was an interesting gig.

Had to post this cute picture of me with my godson Oscar on the promenade at Brooklyn Heights last month (the Statue of Liberty is just about visible in the distance).

According to the Pakistani government, the death toll from the recent earthquake has reached 73,000 now, and looks set to increase further as winter approaches and millions of people are left without shelter. Some villages have not even received any aid yet, almost a month after the earthquake hit, because the roads no longer exist and there are not enough helicopters.

And yet, it seems to me that public awareness of this disaster, at least here in the U.S., is shrinking to approximately zero. The difference in public attitudes to this disaster and the Asian tsunami at the beginning of the year, which resulted in an outpouring of support, is quite striking.

Is this a simple case of disaster fatigue, or is Pakistan just a little too close to Afghanistan to be on Americans’ sympathy radars?