Issuu! + Beep! magazine.

WOO! I do enjoy good news. Our lovely friends at Beep! Magazine have helped us upload issue 1 of Claptrap in a nice format that you can read without any hefty downloads.
ISSUE 1- Claptrap Zine

There
Issue 4- is fucking sweet and up now.

-I really do implore you to go and have a look!

In other news,
HOLY ROAR is your cool older brother in the attic.
They kill it in ever department. Artwork, bands, ethos.
They put out music to savour and devour.
Including helping to nurture one of the best albums of the year by a westcountry mile.






A proud pride of lionesses falling down some spiral staircase from the recesses of Dali’s mind, spilling through a Sheffield puberty faster than Richard Hammond on a death trip. Rolo are the most intense casio car crash you’ll ever hate to look away from.

Rolo Tomassi- Abraxas

Sadly, they lost a load of money from a pressing plant liquidation. Go donate if you can!
Thats what I call christmas charity.

http://www.holyroarrecords.com/

We're putting on one of their newer signings,
Brontide, in the new year. HUZZAH.






Look out.
x

Obama Caught In The Claptrap

After an orgy of flag-waving, baby kissing and smooth-tongued debates, Barack Obama was voted into office on the 4th of November 2008, but is this slick operator from Chicago the Savour of Modern Times or just a Nixon in a Kennedy's clothing?

Claptrap takes a look...

The historic nature of Obama's election is something that will undoubtedly echo down the annals of history, an event as groundbreaking and memorable as any we are likely to see in the near future. It is hard to discern though, among the cacophony of the USA giving itself a huge, collective pat on the back, the meek sound of any concrete policies, and more importantly, policies that will distinguish Obama from the rest of the political pack and justify all his talk of Change.

Of course, during the election campaign, the battle for political supremacy was mainly fought using charisma, slogans and gravitas. Poor John McCain stood as much chance against the zeitgeisty, That Guy stylings of Obama as a skeleton made out of matchsticks would have against Ricky Hatton. Now the election is over however, its time to really examine Obama and what he'll do that will make a difference.

'You can always judge a President-Elect by the first Chief of Staff they appoint' is what a friend of mine used to constantly say before I had him sectioned, but thinking about it now, he may have had a point.

Obama's choice of Rahm Israel Emanuel is indicative of this. At first glance, Rahm appears to be just another interchangeable, self-important political drone, but if you look closer, you can clearly see that his appointment resonates a clear pro-Israel message. Rahm's father was in a pro-Zionist terrorist group called Irgun who were operative in Palestine between 1931 and 1948 and involved in several horrific attacks against civilians in that time.

At hearing the news of his son's appointment his father was quoted in an Israeli newspaper as saying "Obviously, he will influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why shouldn't he do it? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floor of the White House."

Although Rahm immediately apologized for his father's remarks, he hasn't explicitly denied that he will propagate pro-Israel policies. The congressman said Obama did not need his influence to "orientate his policy toward Israel."

A senior aide to Rahm was also reported as saying to Ynet.com, "Emanuel is pro-Israeli, and would not be willing to consider accepting the job unless he was convinced that President-elect Obama is pro-Israel."

Those hoping that Obama's election will mean a new era of leniency toward Palestine and the concept of a fair, sustainable Palestinian state in general may then be disappointed.

Obama's appointment of his Security Council also tells an interesting political story. His nomination of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defence seems to suggest that he is not quite prepared to leave the Bush years behind. He was appointed by good old Dubya in 2006 and held previous posts as the director and deputy director of the C.I.A.

Gates has been surrounded by controversy in his involvement in several momentous political scandals including the Iran-Contra affair, which involved selling arms to Iran to pay for arming paramilitary groups in South America.

An ex-member of Reagan's Security council, Howard Tiecher, has also explicitly implied him in arming Saddam Hussein in the mid 1980's saying “The CIA, including both CIA Director Casey and Deputy Director [Robert] Gates, knew of, approved of, and assisted in the sale of non-U.S. origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq,”.

Thus we see that the residual bad stink of a Republican administration may linger in the White House for longer than a lot of people would say is healthy. The fabled Change that Obama has promised us using his Perfect American Teeth is so far the same disregard for Palestine and a renewed expense account for the man who sold Saddam weapons in the eighties.

Marine General James Jones may just cheer us up then. "Supreme Commander of NATO" and "Commandant of the Marine Corps" are good things to have on your CV when going for the job of National Security Advisor. However this fiddly little diplomat/killing, machine has his fingers in other pies than piddling matters of American security logistics.

He is currently on both the executive board of the Boeing Company; those guys and gals that brought us the Stealth Bomber, and the Chevron Company; those guys and gals that brought us the Niger Delta incident, whilst simultaneously being the chair of president of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This institute recently published a "Transition Plan" for the Obama-Biden administration with regard to the future of energy use in America that advocates drilling of oil in America and the use of "clean coal" technology.

I attempted to watch an interview with the Vice-President of the institute, Karen Harbert, but got tired of her haphazardly trying to weld unconnected statements together, such as; "You know, the American public spoke strongly in this election about a number of things and one of them was that energy was one of their top priorities." and "We're going to have to have more oil and gas resources developed here at home." She nearly fooled me. By simply placing wildly contrasting facts next to each other she had, by the very act of mental association made them seem feasibly correlated.

A little research on "clean coal" had also revealed that you can pretty much bang the heads together of any seemingly opposite concepts and make them stick. Clean Coal uses a technology called Sequestration that removes a lot of the CO2 in the refining that is then simply stored somewhere else, like underground. Sounds nice doesn't it; coal can be your friend. It can come in your house without getting the carpet all dirty. Except it can't. According to the American Water Works Association "Sequestration technology has yet to be tested on a large scale and may not be safe or successful. Sequestered CO2 may eventually "leak" up through the ground, may lead to unexpected geological instability or may cause contamination of aquifers used for drinking water supplies."

Hopefully, Obama will not pay heed to General Jones when it comes to energy issues, or we'll see a disastrous continuation of unsustainable energy use in America and a blatant disregard for the urgent need for sustainable energy policy.

It doesn't stop there however. As his Secretary of State, Obama has appointed a shady character called Hillary Clinton. Whilst little is known about her, she is believed to be married to a man called Bill Clinton, a known philanderer and ex-President.

Foreign Policy wise, Clinton seems to be trying to line the jackboot of American imperialism with soft, pink fluffy fur. Though only time will tell how the incoming administration deals with issues such as the trade embargo with Cuba and the relationship with China et al.

Judging Obama by the company he keeps so far, its easy to sense the pro-Israel, pro-Oil, pro-C.I.A sleaze vibes. There are good signs though, Obama has ordered the close of Guantanamo Bay and although, according to Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough, there is no consensus "about how and where to try the detainees", at least the concept is being discussed in public.

The years to come will be a test of the integrity of the Mighty Barack and hopefully he'll suprise us all by making some sensible policy decisions and shaking off and giving a good beating the phantom of Republican politick that has haunted the White House for so long.


A comprehensive bibliography is available for this article.
But most of its from Wikipedia.
So you know its halal.

What happens if you really, really want a flipping excellent trip out with a friend at 4am in summer in bradford? Where the fuck can you go?

Well i'd like to think that SC and I have come up with an ingenious solution that will be fun for all the family. . .

The initial idea was to get some real beauty out of something that can be considered an eyesore (not by me though, it shows true integrity to be still standing in my opinion) by catching it in some rare and early (early, early, early) morning sun. no to be unfortunately, but still i think we got the best of it.

Wapping school, next to the ALC is home to the first ever swimming pool to be built in a school in England, so many think that just for that, it should be protected by law. But because of an existing dispute between the owners (a demolition company) and the planning people it has been left basically to rot.

Fuck that, it's just another thing in bradford that has class and real style that is being wasted in favour of some trendy glass shit designed by someone who couldn't care what bradford wants or needs.

Here are a few shots taken, trying to highlight the poor state of such a wonderful building and also the way it's being used for some beauty art works now. Go and check it out for yourself sometime. Opening times, 00.00 Jan 1st till 11.59.9 december 31st. Enjoy it, it's yours. JT x

Fire?

see-thru ceiling

Art classes?

2)

Alls well that starts well.

So the party was totally unbelievably storming.

A fittingly joyous way to celebrate a joyous zine.

Photos and videos soon, plus a special South African music post thanks to our good friend

DJ Aberdnigo, who span some on the night.

Excitingly, its all up online now-

>Claptrap1-readable.pdf

Thats the readable one, just goes through it in order.

But we would strongly emplore you to download these two, the outside and inside pages,

then print them off and distribute! The two files means you can print it out well easy on back to back pages.

Be sure to put your own cover on it, we had some amazing ones at the launch.

>Claptrap1 -Outside.pdf

>Claptrap1 - Inside.pdf

GO! PRINT! PHOTOCOPY!

1)

THE
BIG
BANG
II

This friday is effectively the biggest bang since the big bang.
But instead of cosmic dust, we shall be scattering illegally photocopied yet beautiful fragments of DIY paper joy... namely... Issue 1 of Claptrap zine.

This will be a momentous moment in the history of everything interesting, although the abundance of wonderful organic ale may mean that none of us will be able to actually recount it.
We are of course completely stoked to be sharing this launch of goodness with those wonderful Buen Chico types. huzzah.

But yes, do come join us.
It shall be quite the party,
heres the crack-



Buen Chico
launch ace new album ‘Our Love’s Enormous’
-Our favorite Leeds band, fuzzy surf-pop to make limbs flail-

With support from-

Spodni Pradlo
- a Smörgåsbord of danceable noise from all over the universe-

And
Monty Casino
-perhaps the last chance (seriously saddening I know) to see everyone’s favourite Bradford 3 piece- all witticisms, power riffs and flexed muscle.

Then DJs-
Willy Nilly (anything and everything, riot grrrl to RAWRR hardcore), Viruss (genius Drum and Bass, Dubstep and Jungle), Jon Jones and the Beatniks Movement DJs (fist pumping rock and roll, 60s garage and psych), Outlive DJs (Afro-Beat, D.I.S.C.O, Grime and WOBBLY Bassliiine, etc etc etc)

+ Free shop prep, lovely food, cakes, dressing up, freebies and the best organic local ale about.

Only £2 in,
Or £1.50 for 1in12 members and substantial beards (fake or real).

Plus the chance to see for the first time-
Claptrap Zine a new DIY, old school zine- a eulogy to Bradford and to alternative ways of living.
Its free and beautiful.

Food and planning for next issue of the zine (come with ideas or submissions)
6pm till 8pm

Music and Party
8pm till 3am.