Yes yes yes
Another week, another Lager Time episode is out. This week it’s EP 3 of the Young UnProfessional series - Alpine Downdressing
This episode sees Reece goes for a few beers with his fellow New Town ex-patriate Stuart Simmons, but they’r both at very different stages in life
You can listen below on Spotify or Apple, or better still on Substack, where you’ll get extra bits, blogs etc
Nice one
Paul
Easy. Couple of weeks late but it’s the second part of the Date With Mates story, enjoy
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TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR NEXT WORK-IN-PROGRESS PERFORMANCES
JULY 30TH / 31ST @ CAMDEN PEOPLE’S THEATRE
BABY STEPS
So here’s the coo… A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to write about all the different jobs I’ve done over the years, there’s been a few. I went through each job I ever did and worked out what stories I could tell, I then put that into a body of work, which I called ‘WORK.’ Imaginative, I know.
I spoke to Camden People’s Theatre, who were up for letting explore the idea further, in view of attempting to make a show out of it.
TODDLER TIME
I did a 15 minute scratch of some of the material I’d written at CPT. With the help of Lucy Atkinson (who produced my first solo show, A Tale From the Bedsit, in 2013) I wrote an Arts Council grant to get some dough, for a bit of R&D. I assembled a top team of collaborators to help me out, including producer Ellie Barr. In December 2019, we done another scratch, a bit longer this time, at CPT again, then put an hour-long preview together, for a show at VAULTS Festival in February. Then COVID. Then nothing.
TEENAGE STROP
I decided to leave the show for a bit, I wasn’t fully happy with it, probably a good thing, though as COVID shelved everything anyway, BASTARD!
ADULTHOOD BUT WITH A LONG WAY TO GO
Until I got the itch again about nine months later…
So here we are now, April 2021 and tickets have just gone on sale for the next work-in-progress showings at CPT. The show now has a new name, Make Your Own Bed and Hope for the Best, which I think best sums up what the show is about, in terms my journey in it.
Last November, 2020, I went back watched all the scratches, read the material and re-wrote lots of it, I then decided to film each one and stick it up online as part of the development.
It’s very much still being developed, I’ve ended writing a load more material and I’m now wondering how the faaaack I’m gonna fit it all in but then, that’s part of the fun, isn’t it.
You can have a butchers at the journey so far, all the performances and then the story uploads, then, if you like it, come and see me do it live!
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.
Yes
Here’s part number 4 - Leafy Canary wharf. It’s about my brief stint as a labourer for a tree-surgeon.
The whole project is coming along nicely, though at some point in the near future, I’m going to have to sit sown and edit them and start to putting them togethor
It’s looking likley that I’m going to be doing some previews in July (COVID permitting / fingers crossed and all that) - anyway, have a butchers and thanks for everyone has watched so far
Paul
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
Bonjour
Second story from my work-in-progress theatre show, Make Your Own bed and Hope For the Best (I should have a word with the Paul Cree marketing team) - this one is based on my experiences of working in a newsagent.
Despite the lapel mike, the sound was shite so I’ve had to use the video sound. It’s not just the stories that’s a work-in-progress, this whole damn project is (have a look at a blog I recently wrote, regarding this)
Big thanks to everyone that has watched and engaged with the first two videos, I’m genuinely finding this a useful exercise and I’ll keep them coming.
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