Affairs at the Jupiter Hotel » span http://affair-jupiterhotel.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:19:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 Clare Allen Obituary http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/clare-allen-obituary/ http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/clare-allen-obituary/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 05:44:42 +0000 Joseph L. Flatley http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/clare-allen-obituary/ My mother, Clare Allen, who has died aged 62, was an unfailingly dignified woman with an elegant appearance, incredible intellect, a warm nature and a sparky sense of humour. She had an unbounded interest in history and politics, and retained a passion for the arts throughout her life. Born in Hammersmith, west London, Clare was the [...]]]>

My mother, Clare Allen, who has died aged 62, was an unfailingly dignified woman with an elegant appearance, incredible intellect, a warm nature and a sparky sense of humour. She had an unbounded interest in history and politics, and retained a passion for the arts throughout her life.

Born in Hammersmith, west London, Clare was the only child of Clifton Stephenson, an RAF officer, and his wife Kathleen, a musician. Her parents had been based in France during the second world war, and Clare spent her early childhood in Paris, and in South Africa with Kathleen’s family.

She was educated at Claremont school (now Claremont Fan Court school) in Esher, Surrey, and later moved to London, where she attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. Here she met Steve Allen, a fellow student. They married in 1972 and had three children: Esme was born in 1973 and Tom and I followed in 1976. Although Steve and Clare later divorced, they remained good friends.

My twin, Tom, was diagnosed with severe autism and requires full-time specialist care. Clare devoted herself to ensuring he had access to the best support available. She worked tirelessly with Tom’s social workers and care team, even rallying the support of her local MP, to ensure his needs were met.

Clare returned to study and in 1988 was awarded a 2:1 in history of art and design from Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University). She was a regular visitor to the city’s Royal Exchange Theatre, and frequently attended art exhibitions in Manchester and London. After graduating, she worked as a researcher for an executive recruitment company.

She spent her spare weekends visiting her children, who cherished her company. In recent years she enjoyed trips to Norway and Switzerland with her family. She was also adored by her two young grandchildren, who knew her as Nan-Nan. We all survive her.

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Clare Allen obituary


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]]> http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/clare-allen-obituary/feed/ 0 Don Paterson On Rain http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/don-paterson-on-rain/ http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/don-paterson-on-rain/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:58:30 +0000 Nilay Patel Don Paterson has won nearly every poetry prize that’s worth winning, and he will shortly learn if he can add the Forward best collection award to his tally. He reads three poems from his new collection, Rain, moving from the intimacy of Correctives through the wry humour of Error to the tolling melancholy of the title [...]]]> Don Paterson on Rain

Don Paterson has won nearly every poetry prize that’s worth winning, and he will shortly learn if he can add the Forward best collection award to his tally.

He reads three poems from his new collection, Rain, moving from the intimacy of Correctives through the wry humour of Error to the tolling melancholy of the title poem.

He also explains why you can never trust poets to say what they mean, how he’s fascinated by the language of music technology, and what neuroscience is teaching poets who, like him, have one foot in the academy.

Claire Armitstead





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]]> http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/don-paterson-on-rain/feed/ 0 Live Like A King In The District http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/live-like-a-king-in-the-district/ http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/live-like-a-king-in-the-district/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:28:21 +0000 Donald Melanson This D.C. home offers lavish amenities for hosting the international elite.Read the whole article at Forbes Related Blogs Related Blogs on Business Plot A Potpourri Of Short Hollywood Movie Plot Summaries – Webpage2day … Some Distinctive Hollywood Movie Plot Summaries – Webpage2day.com … A Few Superlative Film Plot Lines – Webpage2day.com: Online … A Cross Section Of Complete Movie Plot Lines [...]]]> This D.C. home offers lavish amenities for hosting the international elite.Live Like A King In The District


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]]> http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/live-like-a-king-in-the-district/feed/ 0 Blockbuster May Close Us Stores As Dvd Rental Chains Struggle http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/blockbuster-may-close-us-stores-as-dvd-rental-chains-struggle/ http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/blockbuster-may-close-us-stores-as-dvd-rental-chains-struggle/#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:08:31 +0000 Vladislav Savov DVD rental chain Blockbuster may close 960 of its US stores as competition from download and postal services increases Its plan to defend itself against the onward march of movie rental websites by focusing on movie memorabilia from the likes of Top Gun and Men in Black was met with derision earlier this year. And yesterday [...]]]> Blockbuster may close US stores as DVD rental chains struggle

DVD rental chain Blockbuster may close 960 of its US stores as competition from download and postal services increases

Its plan to defend itself against the onward march of movie rental websites by focusing on movie memorabilia from the likes of Top Gun and Men in Black was met with derision earlier this year. And yesterday Blockbuster announced it may close 960 of its 4,400 US stores in a move that looks likely to signal the beginning of the end for the DVD rental store as we know it.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it could close as many as 685 stores this year and 275 the following, according to the Hollywood Reporter. That would save about $30m a year for a company which has been struggling in the States in the face of competition from Netflix, a DVD rental service which operates via the post, and Redbox, which operates an automated kiosk-based rental service. Increasingly advanced movie download services from iTunes and other providers look set to make life even harder in the future and the company was named by usnews.com in February as one of the 15 firms that might not see out the year.

Blockbuster’s latest masterplan seem to be to ape Redbox by launching its own kiosk-based service: it is due to expand from 500 units to 10,000 over the course of the next year.

Ben Child

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]]> http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/blockbuster-may-close-us-stores-as-dvd-rental-chains-struggle/feed/ 0 Stephen Fry Tweet Sends Book’S Sales Rocketing http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/stephen-fry-tweet-sends-books-sales-rocketing/ http://affair-jupiterhotel.com/stephen-fry-tweet-sends-books-sales-rocketing/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:52:29 +0000 Chris Ziegler Twitter endorsement from much-loved comedian boosts sales by 6,000% in a day Read a story from the book that so wowed Fry here Sales of David Eagleman’s book of short stories about the afterlife soared by 6,000% after Stephen Fry raved about it on Twitter. Fry, who has more than 750,000 followers, tweeted yesterday that “You will not [...]]]> Stephen Fry tweet sends book's sales rocketing

Twitter endorsement from much-loved comedian boosts sales by 6,000% in a day

Read a story from the book that so wowed Fry here

Sales of David Eagleman’s book of short stories about the afterlife soared by 6,000% after Stephen Fry raved about it on Twitter.

Fry, who has more than 750,000 followers, tweeted yesterday that “You will not read a more dazzling book this year than David Eagleman’s ‘Sum’. If you read it and aren’t enchanted I will eat 40 hats.” The collection, which considers different versions of the afterlife, from a microbe-sized God unaware of humanity’s existence to an afterlife where the dead are split into all their different ages, subsequently shot to number two in Amazon’s bestseller charts.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is not the first title to benefit from a plug on Twitter: in May, Jonathan Ross sent Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare at Goats racing up the book charts after he selected it for a Twitter book club. Publisher Canongate is now rushing through a major reprint of the Eagleman collection to meet demand. “It’s lovely when things come out of the blue,” said publisher Jamie Byng. “I knew Stephen was a huge fan of the book [but] the impact of his tweet is just amazing. It’s the ultimate word of mouth recommendation from someone [his followers] really trust, and from a publisher’s point of view it’s magical.”

Fans of the book also include Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker, and Canongate is now planning an audiobook featuring Fry, Cave, Cocker and others reading individual stories. An event at the Sydney Opera House in June saw several of the stories set to an original score by Brian Eno, and a reading on 12 November at the Southbank Centre in London will include turns from Philip Pullman, Miranda Richardson, Cave and Cocker, among others.

Fry later tweeted that when he promised to eat 40 hats if his followers weren’t enchanted by Sum, he was actually referring to the word “hat” as meaning “cashew nut” in a rare Papuan dialect.

Alison Flood

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