LAGER TIME PODCAST: On BullS*it Detection

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

Another week, another Blog / Podcast for Lager Time is up. Continuing with my work, writing peices in response to Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

This week, I get stuck into a quote from BOOK 3 of Medittaions - it’s called on On BullS*it Detection

As ever, I host it all on Substack where you can listen to it as the podcast but also have the text to read, as well as other benfits, like Substack only stuff. It’s also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and bare others.

Hope you enjoy

Keep it Larger than Life

Paul

LAGER TIME: On Reading Books / Meditations on Meditatations - Intro

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening?

I hope you are well in the land of lager, or whatever your equivilant tipple-is-that-serves-somewhat-as-metaphor-for-getting-some-things-off-your-chest.

The latest Lager Time episode is up. In it, I talk about my relationship with reading books and introduce will be the next little season on Lager Time. I’ll be writing twevelve repsonse peices, for the twevlve books that make up Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations; I also explain why it is I’m doing this, aside from just giving me something to do.

Hope yous all enjoy

Have a banging Christmas and all that

Peas and taters

Paul

Lager Time is back! McGeezer The Machine

Greetings

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back producing podcasts and blogs for Lager Tine. It’s been a busy few months for me; with work and a course I was undertaking. All is explained and more, if you listen to this episode, better still, subscribe on Substack and you’ll get it direct into your inbox every week, or if you prefer just the audio, you can get it on Spotify, Apple and all them!

This week’s epsiode featured the last in the series (strange timeing, I know) of the Satteltie Stories series which I’d done; all base don my experiances growing up in the Gatwick area. This is about the summer after the middle school I attened closed down.

Have a blast

Paul

Toast In The Machine, out NOW https://paulcree.hearnow.com/

If you fancy giving me a little tip, for the price of a pint, would be much appriciated https://ko-fi.com/paulcree

Follow me on any of these platforms

SPOTIFY FOLLOW - https://open.spotify.com/artist/77Io4...

APPLE FOLLOW - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/pau...

AMAZON MUSIC - https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player...

BANDCAMP - https://paulcree.bandcamp.com/

Out Here show

Easy

Been a while. Been busy

So one of the projects I’ve been working on for the last year, is a project called Friends From Afar, with a Westminster based arts organisation called Dream Arts. It’s a group of young people (15-21) from all around the world; who are living in London. I co-lead it with Catherine Palmer; who I’ve worked with before through Pilot Theatre and Young & Talented.

We meet every Thursday and we do a bit of a drama and music, play some games and eat some food.. We’ve been slowly developing this show over the last year. Most of the group have never done anything like this before but the premise, the characters and a number of the scenes; were all create dby them, we’re really proud of them.

All the music in the show is being triggered via a loopstation. Part of the process has been me showing them the basics of beatboxing and rapping.

It’s been a really rewarding project, not only are they a great and fun group to work with, I’ve been able to put a script togethor as well as work with them to compose all the songs. It’s rare I get to facilitate, put a script togethor and do the music, outisde of my own solo stuff.

I started last year, just as we came out the pandemic, so I felt rusty and I’d lost a bit of confidence. I was skint, the grants had dried up and I was pulling my hair about how I was going to continue doing this, so when Catherine phoned me out the blue, I jumped on board.

Here we are, one year ater about to bang-out a show at the Institute of Contempory arts, in London. Come through, it’s gonna be sick. #TSOOP

The Unlicensed Diver

A few words and a little poem at the end, as per...

Originally featured on my Substack page, where you can hear it as audio

I’m a stickler for nuance, especially in the times we’re in now. Sometimes, it can be a pain in the arse - someone can state something and I find it hard to let it go without piping up, sometimes I wish I wouldn’t, sometimes I do shut-up then wish I did pipe-up, I can’t win and it probably makes me a pain-in-the-arse to be around. It’s worth mentioning, though, all of the above, I only tend to do offline, online that’s a fight I’m too afraid of, which was part of the reason I started this blog.

Some trite examples of popular opinions, in the past few years, that were often on my radar, where I  at least try to present a more nuanced point, would be The amazing feat of Leicester winning the Premier League and The amazing success of Stormzy as an independent artist to Jeremy Corbyn is a Marxist and Nigel Farage is a fascist. All these four things are nowhere near as clear or as simple as they’re made out be, some more serious than others, of course but I’m not settling for any of those four statements, as absolute truths, which they’re often presented as.

Brexit was a big one for me, as I’m sure it was for many. A binary question on a highly complex issue - I can see pros and cons on both sides. The toxicity of the mainstream campaigns and debates seemed to detract from what I thought was the original question.  It just became another battlefield in the so called culture-war and it all got a West-Side-Story.

Maybe that’s what the problem is, we’re too quick to get partisan and jump in the what we think are the best equipped camps, no one wants to be in no-mans land; expect perhaps for nobs like me who want to take time to figure things out, when there probably is no time. Trouble is, for someone like me, I can only act on what I know and whilst I do read a lot, especially about politics and social issues, I don’t always understand it and when it comes to arguing it, I often struggle to get my points across; yet that insatiable desire for a bit more nuance never goes and I can get obsessive seeking out alterative views.

At times It feels like a dangerous obsession, or at the very least a nagging one that often riles me up and I don’t quite know what I get out of it. Perhaps I’m just an aspiring smart-arse, who’s not yet earned the ‘smart’ part of that phrase.

At some dull-yet-turbulent moment in twenty-twenty, I wrote this little poem, tyring to make sense of what I’m doing. Suffice to say, on the long road to Damascus, I probably got side-tracked at a service station stressing about what flavour of crips I wanted with my over-priced motorway meal deal, when I should’ve opted for the Pan-Pipe Moods CD compilation from the bargain-bin.

The Unlicensed Diver, Paul Cree

At some point I got lost deep diving for truth

whatever that is

been learning to breathe ever since

can barely swim, let-alone dive

no tanned-man in Thailand

just read what I could

asked a few questions from the few people I

knew and the few books I had

made maps on the internet marked with x’s

got my Nike’s dirty down rabbit holes

realised some rabbis weren’t as wise I thought

just a lot of rabbit talk

I remember getting that irritating twitch back

at school, from playground spats to classroom analysis

often thinking there’s more to this than what’s being presented

just never quite knew what it was

some other texture and taste I weren’t getting from that

bland food I was instructed to swallow

got older and felt the same about the news and everyday

views I’d hear out and about

felt stupid when I aired mine

unformed and messy, like a piece of homework

produced on the bus, I’d produce my two p and

instantly feel out my depth, like I took a bath, shut my

eyes and woke up fighting a storm in the North Atlantic

convincing myself I was better off with the inflatables and the

flumes, at least they were a laugh, that and I

wouldn’t get cast out the clan for

breaking ranks

give it a day or two and the feeling resumed

just didn’t know what to do

so I took to diving, with no licence

just a bunch of erratic thoughts and a thirst for something more

I’ve unearthed a few things that muddied the water

each time I come up for air, I find the land more divided

spliced-up and taking sides

status seekers and self-publicists

political mules nudged into reactions

nudged into action

all armed with their half-truths,

cherry-picked data grenades, firing at will

desperate to catch a dart from the opposing side so they

can spin it out the stratosphere

sealing off all access routes to alternative views

dogmatic with diminishing returns

seen the distance between them turn from stream to river

with the banks threatening to burst

I’m back at school again, choking on the tripe I’m being

co-erced to swallow, thinking there’s a lot more to it, a

lot more, I’ve tasted it and I’m

barley getting started but I’m no

Olllie Twist, please sir… just

forget it

Intro to spoken word workshop

Last week, I did a You-Tube live workshop, for the Tramshed; in An Introduction To Spoken Word.

I enjoyed myself, despite having done a bunch of Zoom sessions over this last year, this was the first time I did it live on You Tube, so I had to take a different approach to what I’d normally do.

I couldn’t see anyone, as I was on Zoom which was then broadcast onto You Tube but there was a team of 4 people behind the scenes doing all sorts of cool techy things to make it happen.

I based the session on using a personal object where you live as the basis to write a story, as well as giving one of my own, large up Stripey Bear. Have a watch / go below.

The workshop was part of Tramshed’s All Together Now, which are free arts workshops every Tuesday and Sunday at 4pm, get involved, they’ve had a whole bunch of different stuff on there.

M.Y.O.B (A.H.F.T.B) / / PART 3 -TROLLY BOY

Here’s the next instalment in the Make Your Own Bed (and Hope For the Best) story development

Needs a bit of work this one but I least feel like I’m getting better at making the video’s.

Progress, mate

Being shit at something is no longer an excuse

WINDOW DRESSING

Yesterday, Friday 5th February, 2021, was a busy day at Cree HQ. I released a self-produced new single with a B-side, with artwork that I made myself and stuck the thing up on Bandcamp. I released the first video in a little series I’m doing which includes material from the new show. I lit, filmed, edited, and uploaded it myself. Sounds, alright, yea?

REALITY

The songs aren’t mixed very well (you can hear my breathing too much on the first track.) Apart from putting links up on my social media platforms, I’ve done zero PR for it (I don’t really know where to start with that.) The artwork, I made myself on GIMP- it’s very, very simple. There’s a fault line that I don’t know how to get rid of on the main image. With the video, I’ve got way too much light on my face and the sound isn’t great, nor is the delivery in the performance. Basically, it’s all pretty shoddy. Whilst there are certainly a few improvements that I know I can make, it largely shows the extent of my limited skillset, when it comes to putting out my own content.

Exhibit A: My wife said ‘I don’t get it?’ - well, good art gets people talking.

Now, apart from writing the words used in both the music and video, I probably wouldn’t have bothered doing any of the above, not so long ago, due to knowing that I’m not very good at doing those things; also known as, being shit.

There’s been many examples, over the extent of my 37.6 years on this planet, where I’ve given up far too easily. The reasons for this vary but the one that most frequently caused me to stop doing whatever was it was I was trying to do, was being shit at whatever that thing was. It’s shit being shit. I’m sure we all know that.

SIDENOTE

I need to stress here (out of insecurity? Ego? Pride? I don’t know?) that it’s not the case for everything. The fact that I’m sitting here, writing this blog post, follows a trajectory (which I’ve talked about, a lot) from MCing and rapping, in my late teens, to all this other writing stuff now. I was shit at MCing, for a long time and have the tapes to prove it (confidence also plays part in this but I’m not using that as a full excuse, I was shit, mate) but I stuck with it and low and behold, here I am - with a website and a few shows and other cool things under my belt. Well done me for not giving up.

SHIT EXAMPLES

I’ve been shit at a lot of things. I essentially wrote a show about being shit at school (amongst other things), which turned into this new show (which I’m currently writing) which is about (amongst other things) being shit at the jobs I was doing.

Some of the things I wasn’t able to give up, like school for instance, to the extent that I had to be there, by law but most of my efforts, in the last few years of it were reduced to doing the absolute bare minimum, which is probably worse than giving up. With most of the jobs, I needed to earn a living and didn’t want to be sacked, so I still turned up but again, minimal effort in a lot of cases (though, not all.)

There were somethings, I at least for a period, tried hard with, like Maths and French but just couldn’t my head around them, so I gave up. Cleaning was another, I was normally knackered after a shift, hoovering, scrubbing and wiping but I was still shit at it.

However, so many other things, from that Basketball team I trained with for a brief period, to applying for numerous jobs and opportunities, where I just think, I’m shit at this, so what’s the point in continuing? and resign myself to misery and give up.

This attitude has definitely flowed into my work as a creative person. First and foremost, I see myself as a lyrics man, I deal with words and I perform those words. However, there’s many things I’ve attempted, within the world of being an artist, like funding applications and making your own artwork, producing my own music, that I’ve been shit at and just given up, or not even bothered to attempt it, once I’d established I was shit at it.

So where’s that got me? Not that far, that’s for sure. Most of the things that I have done, which went well, which required skills like: funding, artwork, producing, mixing, engineering, filming, editing - were done by people who knew what they were doing, making me a very fortunate young man; because they probably wouldn’t have happened if it was just me in charge  

Of the things that I’m proud of, most of them involved me getting off my arse and making something happen, whilst transcending or ignoring that negative-mindset, that whatever it was, it was going to be shit.

POSITIVE SHIT

I wrote a blog a while back, about the Just A Name mixtape, that I made in 2007. That project came out of a frustration, that I wasn’t able to record and put out my own music, all I had was an ever increasing pile of lyrics, with no music to rap them over. So with the help of my brother Will and my mate, Mit, I learnt just enough on Logic, saved up a bit of dough, bought some basic kit and done the damn thing myself (apart from the mixdown, hold tight Keeper.) Even going to open mics to read my poems, I’d say I was shit at that but I kept it up and got reasonably competent at it.

Whilst I’m pleased with the things that I have achieved, there’s been a whole load of stuff that I haven’t, far too much, in fact, because I made an excuse for myself and gave up. It’s bollox.

Circa 2007, some early Cree. A perm marker was used and then scanned, by a printer/scanner that did’nt realy print or scan.

YOU CAN DO IT, ALL YOU NEED IS…

I’m not trying to sound like one of those self-help guru’s here but that attitude has held me back and I feel stupid for doing so. I think it also masks, on my part, a laziness, risk aversion and a fear of what other people will think. The times where I haven’t been lazy or risk-averse, have led to good things, mostly. So more of that, yea.

In an ideal word, I’d have proper people doing the artwork, the PR, the filming, the funding and I’d just concentrate on my bit, writing and performing but I don’t, none of that is financially viable right now. What I do have, is some good people willing to help me, access to WIFI, a bit of equipment and an account with Udemy and You Tube, so I’m able to at least get some of these little projects finished, to whatever standard and get them out there. The best bit is, I’m slowly improving at the things I mentioned at the start (I can now do a lot more than this time last year) and I get those little dopamine hits, whenever I learn how to do something new, which is a good feeling, even if what I’ve just done is a bit shit; like the artwork on my new track.

So long as I accept the starting point of being shit, at writing funding applications, mixing music, filming, editing, making artwork but acknowledge that I’ll probably improve, if I keep doing it, then I’m onto a winner, mate.

So what I think all this means is, that the real shit thing here in all of this, is doing nothing at all and giving up. It’s shit, being shit but even shitter if you don’t do shit, when you want to get shit done. ‘Eff that, I’ve already wasted to much time, I’ve got work to do.

Peas and taters

Paul

NLT Poetry workshops →

I was recently commisioned by the National Literacy Trust, to put togethor 5 workshops video’s on writing poems. I try my best to take you through wriitng a Narrative, List and Ode poem. Then picking one, editing it then presenitng it.

I’m only just getting to grips with filming my own video’s and this was only the second attempt at doing a filmed workshop. It was good fun and I learned a lot, I still very much miss running workshops, with a bunch of real people all in a real room but you know how it is….

Here’s the weblink - https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/zone-in/poetry-paul-cree/

CRONGTON KNIGHTS FESTIVAL #CKFESTIVAL

Back at the start of this year, I began working with both Pilot Theatre and Young & Talented, running workshops with groups of young people up and down the country to make response pieces to the currently touring play Crongton Knights, which is an adaptation on the YA novel written by Alex Wheatle. The musical director on the show, is my Beats & Elements sparring partner, Conrad Murray. So of course, all of the music in the show is created by the cast, using beatbox, rap, singing and spoken word. So right up my street.

Young & Talented is a theatre school, based in London that run classes across the age spectrum. I was approached by Suzann McLean to work with the Theatre Peckham strand and also, with Catherine Palmer in the Bethnal Green strand. Due to this virus, of course, all of this work was cut short. However, for what seems like a huge effort from all those at Y&T, Theatre Peckham and Pilot , the artists and of course, all of the young people, they went on the produce the online #CKFESTIVAL.

 Below, you can see some of the pieces that I worked on with them. It was a real pleasure.