LAGER TIME: On Eating That Marshmallow

Easy

Latest Lager Time episode is up - it’s called On Eating That Marshmallow and it’s about delying gratification.

As per the others, it starts with a quote from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, this time it’s Book 8. I’m going to do 4 and then we’re done with this series, mate

You can subscribe to both the podcast and blog on Substack, which is where I host it, or you can hear it as audio on Spotify and Apple.

Source: https://cree.substack.com/#details

LAGER TIME PODCAST: On Music Enjoyment Denial

Easy easy easy

I’ve just uploaded another episode of Lager Time - this one is called On Music Enjoyment Denial - where I talk about about why I didn’t like Grime, when it first emerged in the early 2000’s.

It’s based on Book 4 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It’s the fifth one (including the intro) in this series I’ve written and I’ve very much enjoyed it.

You can listen below via Substack, or you can Subscribe to my Substack where it’s hosted and where you can also read it as a blog.

As ever, if you like this odd little niche thing that I’m doing over here, please recommend it to a mate, and if you fancy whipping the wallet out, you can make a donation on my Ko-Fi account, Buy-Me-A-Lager – there’s a few copies left of my first book the Suburban, which you can grab on my website alongside a couple of other bits – then of course there’s music on Spotify, Apple, and videos on You Tube and all that caper.

Peas and taters

Paul

Source: https://cree.substack.com/publish/settings

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

Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/cree/p/on-bu...

LAGER TIME - On the Support of Football Support - Meditations Book q →

Easy easy easy

The first Lager Time episode of 2024 is up; it’s called On The Support of Football Support. In it I talk about my love of Millwall FC and my simultaneous dislike of crystal palace.

It’s the first in a new series I’m writng, in repose to 12 quotes from the 12 books of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (one peice for each book)

Something a little different to what I’ve done before but I’m enjoying writing it, hope you enjoy reading / listening to it.

Spotifty link below and also the sign-up for the Subtack wher eyou can also read it and have it as en email newsletter, as well as the other podcast. It’s also available on Apple on loads of other streaming platforms.

 

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 - Young UnProfessional EP 6 - Just Another Day(te)

Greetings, bonjour, what’s happening

The last in this current little mini-series of Young Unprofessional is up. In this episode, Reece finally goes on the date with Alice, who he met through the dating section of the Gumtree website. It’s a little later than expected, but I explain why in the introduction.

I’ve enjoyed writing this little mini-series, it felt like the natural evolution of the Satellite Stories series, whilst incorporating my desire to start writing from the perspective of a fully fictional character, from a fictional town (even if lots of it is based on my experiences)

I’m still undecide on the form of it, so what I think I’d like to do next is sit down and look over what I’ve written and work out what’s working and what isn’t etc.

I don’t know how any of these stories are landing with people but when I get into it and start writing, I enjoy it and I feel there is more to come. They are all works in progress, as is the whole podcast, so they’re raw and rough round the edges. I have a feeling that if I can refine my process, I can improve on what I’m doing with it.

I’ve also enjoyed featuring my own music (which is handy as I don’t have to worry about licensing etc) – something which I’ve neglected to mention. It helps break the stories up at bit and can put a contextual frame round it, as well as giving a legit excuse to write more music; again, I have no idea how any of this is landing, but, I do this because I enjoy doing it, anything else positive that comes of it is a bonus.

So what next? I have a few old stories from the Reece stuff I’ve written over the years, which I’d like to put up. I’ve also slowly been compiling a load of quotes from the books I’ve been reading and have an idea to use these as an impetus to write some thoughts, in an attempt at some essays; so at some point, at least one of these will emerge.

As scatty as I can be, in my own dysfunctional way, stuff does get done; and I would like to improve that and in general, improve myself, otherwise, what is the point in all of this? I think it’s a little bit like the Reece character, he is flawed and is somewhat aware of this, and in his own doomed way, is trying to do something about it, he just doesn’t really know how.

I hope you enjoy this latest episode, if you like it, please subscribe and share it, as much as I do this for me, when someone tells me they like it, it kicks me up the arse to do more. On the Substack, there is a link to the Young UnProfessional series which you can click and have them all in one place.

Peas and taters for now

Paul

Barz In The Car: EP 14 - feat Paul Cree & Conrad Murray (Hosted by X-It)

Easy

Insert sorry I haven’t posted in a while blah blah blah message, there’s probably lots of reasons.

Alas, here is something I did recently that I really enjoyed. Myself and Conrad Murray, were working on a project up in Bedford, called Future Music Makers, teaching beatboxing. We got to work with some local artists, and one of them is the rapper X-It, who does a number of things in the area, putting on for local rappers. One of them is his Barz In The Car format, so me and Con jumped in, had chat, dropped some beats and I spat some bars.

Had a great time up there, and in the car. I love spitting and aside from my kitchen, I don’t get to do it very often, so large up X-It, watched the video and go check his stuff

Peas and ‘taters

Barz In The Car ep 14 - Paul Cree & Conrad Murray (Beats & Elements) - hosed by X-It

New freestyle video - Toy Cars 64

Easy

So I’ve put together a little freestyle promo video, for the upcoming Toast In The Machine EP, Toy Cars 64. It’s a 64 bar-stream of consciousness-type-verse. I like to write these from time to time.

I’m at a point now (and it’s taken a long time to get here!) where I can produce and record my own music, and then a do a bit of simple filming. It’s all quite basic, but if I was able to channel all the frustration I’ve felt, over the years, where I’ve had tons of ideas and lyrics, but not been able to do anything with, I’d probably see us through this current energy crises.

Anyway, I can do it now, so no more excuses and I can only get better with it. If you like it, do me a favour and follow me on the below links, if you use those platforms, it all helps

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/

read all about the EP here https://paulcree.co.uk/blog

 

 

Toast in the Machine SAMPLER

Easy

Happy Sunday. No normal Lager Time at the minute, should be back next week, I’ve got a story that I’m currently writing. Life’s been a bit mad of late; lots of work, home stuff, health etc, getting the time to do it has been difficult, and there’s things I need to get finished, like this here music project.

So I’ve been working on this EP on and off, for almost two years, it’s been a bit of labour of love, as well as a deliberate learning curve and a pain in the arse.

It’s been sat on my hard-drive ‘almost’ finished for a while now. I’ve probably pushed it as far as my limited production skills allow, meaning I’ve attempted to mix and master it myself. I don’t have the money at the moment, to get it mixed and mastered professionally and also I wanted to treat the whole thing as a learning exercise. In the past, I would’ve just left it to someone else, and often there wasn’t someone else, which is way I don’t have much music out there.

Though it’s not perfect, it certainly is an improvement on my last self-produced EP Raw 64’s of Boredom.

Anyway, this is just a little sampler. I’ll be putting it up for distribution shortly, so it’ll be on Spotify, Apple and all that. If you use either of those services, it would help me a lot if you could follow me on any of the links below, depending on which one you use. That way, I think you get alerted when the EP goes live, something like that, anyway. They’ll be a link here and in the podcast description.

SPOTIFY FOLLOW - https://open.spotify.com/artist/77Io4kiSZs1Zhs4UFDmnCr

APPLE FOLLOW - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/paul-cree/410019369

AMAZON MUSIC - https://www.amazon.co.uk/music/player/artists/B008XF7EPS/paul-cree

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

 I’ve now got to figure out how to make some of those little promo videos, all part of the fun I guess, though I’m yet to see the fun part in it.

Anyway, Lager Time should be back with another Satellite Story next week hopefully, got a few more in the bag, don’t know what I’m going to do after that but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Paul

 

LAGER TIME PODCAST: SATELLITE STORIES - THE 405 (PART 1)

Easy

The latest Lager Time podcast is up. This week it’s the first part of a story about getting a long bus journey, across Surrey to Kingston.

I didn’t get around to finishing it in time, so that’s why it’s in two parts, no other reason.

With these stories I’m trying to add in a bit of production, sound effects etc. I messed up the dialogue in one of the bits by sticking the character Donovan, on a channel where I’d put some reverb on it. I think it was what I used for the story intro. Didn’t intend on doing that.

As I go along with Lager Time, I think, to improve it, I’m going to have get a bit more disciplined with how I record it. Probably need a bit more time for the writing, the recording and the mixing. At the moment, it’s all a bit slap-dash

We keep on and all that

To subsribe via Substack, where you can get the written email and podast, subsribe HERE

OR SPOTIFY HERE

OR APPLE PODCASTS HERE

Paul

Lager Time Podcast: Satelite Stories Vol 2 - Drunks and Bunkers

Easy

The latest Lager Time Podcast is up; Satelite Stories Vol 2 - Drunk and Bunkers

This week is a ittle story about a school escapade. As ever, if you enjoy it, you can subsribe and have it as an em amail and podcast via https://cree.substack.com/ or you can search it on APPLE and SPOTIFY

Large up

Paul

Substack post: On the Death of Skibadee: Part 1 →

This was originally featured on my Lager Time Substack blog, where you can both read it and have it as audio. You cal also subsribe and have it as an email, or in your podcast feed, or both

I’m not sure exactly where I was when I heard Skibadee Mcing, for the first time but I’m quite sure it was on the school bus, sat next to my mate, Graham, who lent me a copy, which I copied, of a DJ Brockie set; from a One Nation tape-pack. What I do know is, that it was on that tape, that I first heard Skibba and it stayed in my Walkman, for a very long time. I still have it somewhere and can still recite many of the MC’s lyrics on it. We all have a that tape – I’ve got two, this is the other one.

The year was 1998, I would’ve been about 14. The tape itself, was definitely from 98. That was the year that another legendary UK MC passed away, Stevie Hyper D. His name, along with ‘R I P’ was chanted a lot throughout that tape and a lot of the other DJ sets that were in that same tape-pack. It was pertinent, because from my point of view, and a lot of others, Skibadee went on take Stevie Hyper D’s crown, as the King of Drum and Bass MC’s and all-round UK MC legend.

For those that don’t know what, or who I’m talking about, that’s ok, I’ll try and explain but I’m not quite sure where to start. Perhaps yesterday (Sunday, 28.2.22) I saw online, whilst sat watching that new Kanye West documentary on Netflix, that Skibadee had passed away. I felt that pang in my chest and belly, took in a short breath and paused the telly. This, a week after another UK music stalwart (albeit, from a younger generation) Jamal Edwards, had also passed away.

This morning, I felt compelled to put some thoughts down, not quite sure why but I hope I’ll figure that out as this goes on. It will probably be a bit all over the place, as I’m going to try and link it to something else that I’ve been thinking about, which is something along the lines of; posting-things-on-social-media-as-a-form-of-expression- and-when-is-it-genuine? But I’ll deal with that, in a second post, I’ve got too much to say about Skibba and it’s probably more interesting.

But back to Skibba and that DJ Brockie tape. If you grew up in the 90’s, were from the UK, London or the surrounding counties and were tuned in to underground dance-music, chances are, you’d know about jungle / drum ‘n bass. Maybe you went to the raves, maybe like me, you had a mate and an older brother, who played you a tape, or a record, maybe you heard it blasting out of a souped-up Ford Escort XR3i, or maybe you were playing with the radio dial one day and you picked up one of the numerous pirate-stations that were broadcasting off London rooftops. And if you were nerdy, like I was and still am, you’d get obsessed and chances are you’d know that line of lineage, from Jungle to Drum and Bass - to UK Garage, to Grime, to Dubstep, to UK Rap to Drill, and the roots of that line from rave / hardcore, breakbeat, acid-house, techno, hip hop, bashment /dancehall /ragga / roots-reggae and dub. And you’d be proud of it. Too me, being a nerd is just an extension of passion, after all.

I loved Drum and Bass. I still do. I’ve talked about it a lot in my writing. I played the actual drums as a kid, so I love beats, big beats. When I first heard sped-up, chopped up, amen-breaks, I lost my shit. I soon learned that there was this whole scene, that came from London, just up the road from me, in Surrey and in it existed producers, DJ’s, promoters, pirate-radio stations, raves, flyers, tape-packs from said raves, record shops, record bags and clothes and of course, MC’s. It was sick. And it was from London.

But back to that tape, again, finally. When first hearing it, I didn’t yet know how it all worked. The raves, the pirate-stations and the setups, how the music was communicated, with the DJ’s and the MC’s and how they worked together. I had little or no exposure to that world. I knew hip hop and knew about house and techno, through my older siblings, amongst other sounds. But Hip hop was on TV, house and techno were on BBC Radio 1.  I remember trying to exclaim to my brother, Will, that I’d heard this tape with all of these London MC’s on the records, that the DJ was playing. He had to explain to me, that the MC’s were live, on the mikes, at the event, hyping up the crowd and spitting their lyrics over the beats the DJ was playing. That was how it worked. Despite its similar DJ/MC lineage, 90’s hip hop and its era of wildly successful recording artists, making actual tracks in studios, were hardwired into me at this stage. I had no idea, I thought all those voices that I was hearing on the tape, were recorded on the records. I even thought Skibbas name was ‘Skipper-d’ for a good while.

The whole thing was exciting to me, for a number of reasons. A lot of the MC’s were rapping in the double-time style. Super-fast lyrics, that sounded like machine-guns. I love breakbeats and what there were doing, was making their voices into rhythmic instruments, like watching a drum solo from Buddy Rich, not just sitting in the background providing a beat. I often had no idea what they were saying but it sounded sick. Sometimes they were freestyling, I couldn’t believe that either, just making it up on the spot, like it was magic, they all seemed so talented. But they were doing it, over Drum and Bass beats, which I loved and they had London accents, often intermixed with Jamaican ragga styles. But that sounded far less alien, to this pasty kid from Surrey, than an American accent on a hip hop beat did; as much as I loved hip hop, of course, it was American.

Typically, on a DJ set from one of the big raves, like One Nation, if it was Drum and Bass, you’d have two or three MC’s, sometimes more, sometimes less. The raves would then produce the sought-after tape-packs that you could buy, with all the DJ sets recorded onto cassettes and they’d have these mad futuristic designs on the covers. That first tape from the One Nation 98 pack that I heard, if memory recalls correctly, had 5ivo, Shabba, Fearless, Moose and Skibbadee all MCing on it. Skibba wasn’t on it much but when I heard him, he really stood out. I assumed then, that he was like a young up-and-comer, so only got a little spot. Again, highlighting my lack of understanding about how those big rave events worked, he was all over the other tapes that I later heard, just not the Brockie one. I wanted to hear more of him, though. That little segment was enough to get me hooked. He came on, mid-set, with that lyric that included the words ‘when am I gonna get my dividend’ which is also where I first heard and later learned the meaning of that word; financial education from Skibadee – what was school for?

His staccato, double-time flow, sounded so cool to me. No one did it like him but we all tried. Go on, say that above sentence to yourself, rapidly, without pausing for breath and you’ll go someway to understanding why he was so effective as an all round MC .

‘when am I gonna get my dividend, I get my piece of the action’

His vocal tone, flow and energy, just sounded perfect. I’d rewind that bit, over and over, loving it when he cut in and rode the beat, like a horse to war, full of slickness and confidence. It was his bars and a few of Stevie Hyper D’s (someone else I’ve also written about) that I first tried to copy, when I decided I was going to be an MC.

Since I’ve been into it, Drum and Bass’s popularity has often fluctuated. At the time I first heard that tape, it wasn’t that popular anymore, it didn’t seem it anyway. Wide-boys at my school were listening to speed garage – maybe their elder siblings liked Jungle back in the early 90’s but it was seen as either too fast and aggressive, or just a bit mental. The music was definitely quite-dark, back then, when I first latched on to it.

Me and my brother Will, would go into the newsagents and scan through the big dance music magazines of the time, like DJ and Mixmag and see if there were any Drum and Bass features, it was slim pickings, they barley got a mention. I remember getting upset one day when Loaded magazine casually said it was ‘dead.’ How arrogant have you gotta be to say that? Regardless though, that music soldiered-on, along with its infrastructure of raves like One Nation, Helter Skelter and Droppin Science.

With the commercial success of UK Garage, came the rise of MC-led garage and the So Solid Crew era. Suddenly, UK MC’s were at the forefront, as rappers, on tracks and in videos, not just crowd hypers at the raves anymore. UK hip hop has always been around, as far as I can remember but it was very niche. At this point, Drum and Bass seemed to get more popular again, this time, with a lot more focus on the MC’s, so naturally, Skibba rose to the top. He even featured on a chart-topping Shy FX track that got playlisted on BBC Radio 1. I remember getting pissed-off when Chris Moyles played the record on his drivetime show and was doing bad impressions of Skibba. I felt like he had no idea who Skibadee was and had just disrespected an underground legend, who’d found commercial success.

This era also spawned a whole load of rudeboys, to want to pick up a mike and start MCing – when I first was in my early teens, everyone wanted to DJ, Mc’s were thin on the ground where I grew up. That all changed. Skibba was the one they always seemed to gravitate towards, trying to imitate his rapid double-time style. When am I gonna get my dividend. Everyone loved Skibba. But there’s only one Skibadee and a DJ set, with 7 rudeboys doing bad impressions of him, could easily be MC-overkill and ruin a DJ set and often a whole event; which it did, many times. Thus, the tables had turned somewhat, in the eternal conflict between DJ’s and MC’s but it turned off a lot of people, myself included.

I was heavily into Drum and Bass, for a long time but as I got into my early twenties, I gradually started to drift away from it. I’d been Mcing for a few years and had a few gigs under my belt but had gradually transitioned to focusing more on writing lyrics and trying to make tracks but not drum and bass tracks - hip hop, grime and whatever else; drum and bass was still very a much a club-based scene and I didn’t think I had what it took, to be the hyper-energetic rave MC. That and I got fed-up with moter-mouthed rudeboys trying to hustle the mike off me all the time.

I can’t pretend I’ve been this unwavering, hardcore Drum and Bass head. I haven’t. I still went to the occasional event but chances are it would be something like Rupture – which focused a lot more on the breakbeats and didn’t seem to attract the crowd that wanted the MC’s, spitting constantly over Jump Up beats. In some of those circles, it was almost frowned upon to like those MC’s, or the beats they typically rapped over. Even in an underground sub-genre, with sub-sub-genres, there was still elements of classism and cultural superiority. I certainty had traits of this but if I’m honest, I still loved a bit of Skibba and Shabba on a jump-up set. Every now and again, I’d blast an old tape with MC’s like Skibba spraying all over it. And with the advent of You Tube and the wider application of the internet in general, people were uploading all sorts of old DJ sets from raves and radio and records – so I’d go down these rabbit-holes and enjoy the lyrical-barrages of an MC Convention set, in the safety of my headphones and a few premium-strength lagers.

I work a lot with young people and I often ask them what music they listen too. Many will cite British-born rappers, in fact, these days they’re more likely to listen to British rap music, than they are American. It’s a huge turnaround from where it was, when I first got interested in all of this. I remember people smirking when I told them I liked UK hip hop. Those drum and bass MC’s, along with the UK Garage MC’s and of course the likes of So Solid Crew, Heartless Crew, Pay As You Go (as well as the UK Hip Hop guys Like London Posse, Blak Twang, Roots Manuva, Jehst and Skinnyman) made it a lot more acceptable for your average British kid, to listen to UK MC’s.

The wider acceptance of British underground dance and rap music, was helped massively with the advent of BBC 1Xtra and Channel U. Both national platforms, with a much bigger reach than anything before, where a wider audience could be cultivated and it was. These platforms allowed rappers to have legitimate careers and it sent Grime into the mainstream. I was always chuffed, when those stations showcased the Drum and Bass guys that came before; Skibba was often on 1xtra doing freestyles. And you’d often hear the first wave of successful Grime MC’s, who were getting major record deals, paying homage to Skibba, Shabba, Dett, Stevie Hyper et all, preserving the lineage.

Years later, with social media, I’d be able to occasionally check in with these guys. I followed SASASAS all those MC’s and DJ’s from my past and have regularly watched short video clips of all those guys, shutting down raves and festivals the world over, still going after all these years and as someone that still likes to rap and MC, fast approaching 40, it’s inspiring to me that they’re all still doing it, into their 40’s and 50’s even, and still headlining events. It was only on Saturday, that I looked at a picture of Shabba, Harry Shotta, DJ Phantasy and Skibadee, with the caption asking their fans what festivals they wanted to see them at this year.

With the current crop of Drill rappers, making their way in the music world, I don’t know if they know, from whence they came, in terms of the rap industry in the UK. It’s neither here nor there if they do, they’re doing their own thing and I respect it, as any new generation should -  however, if they care to look – they’ll see Skibadee up there, as one of the great UK MC’s, who helped blaze a path for this whole British rapping thing to happen, and me, and countless others who grew up on the tape packs, pirate-radio and car-stereos and raves, will forever be indebted to his legacy.

I hope he’s up there, in his final resting place, going back-to-back with Stevie Hyper D, keeping the eternal rave-souls lively in the dance. Skibba dealt with the matter and dealt with it proper.

Mislaid Plans - Substack blog

Originally published on my Substack blog: Lager Time, where you can hear it as audio, if you like, give us a subscribe, it all helps

This peice was written in Dallas, over Christmas 2021, whilst in isolation with COVID

Plans for the indecisive

Plans for the unconfident

Plans for the ill-prepared

Plans for the avoiders of conflict

Plans for the effeminate

Plans for the masculine

Plans for the identity clingers

Plans for the identity seekers

Plans for the identity shredders

Plans for the bored

Plans for the un-motivated

Plans for the negative, cynical and depressed

Plans for the self-aware bad-habbiters

Plans for the spouse disappointers

Plans for the family embarrasses

Plans for the compliment shirkers

Plans for the compliment seekers

Plans for the distant whisperers of hope

Plans for long-term excitement

Plans for vitality and wealth

Plans for God, divinity

Plans for organisation

Plans to get well soon

Plans to unclip the seatbelt and press the ejector button

Plans to convert passive to electric

Maybe that’s a good place to start

Made In Isolation: Little track and video →

Greetings

Happy new year and all that

How was yours? Mine wass sick, I was in America, Dallas, but I was sick, with COVID but it was still sick.

So yea I got the dreaded Virus whilst my wife and I were travvelling around America. It’s odd, in the back of my mind, for the last few months, I’ve felt this fear that at some point, the virus would catch up with me. And it did. It weren’t that bad.

Luckily for me, I got it whilst staying at my sister-in-law’s house in Dallas and was able to stay there for the duration of the isolation. Hate to think what would’ve happened had I been stuck in a hotel (and how much that would’ve cost?!) no one else in the house got it either, which was a relief, I felt quite guilty for a while, that I’d ruined Christmas, like the Grinch, or 2020 Boris. Weather was alright too, I sat outside for a fair amount of it, by the swimming pool. Yep, the swimming pool. Texas has space. I can feel any sympathy you may have for me rapidly diminishing as I write this. Didn’t lose my taste buds either. Ate some banging food and was well looked after. Sympathy gone.

Anyway, all of that aside, I was quite fatigued and spent a lot of my time in the spare room, one of three spaces I could sit in and a friend of my wife’s, Clay, asked me why I wasn’t making any music and filming a little timelapse. So I made some music and filmed a little timelapse. Made the beat on Imaschine, wrote some bars, set my phone up in the corner of the room, with this fish eye Lenz I got, and BOOM I made this. All on the blower. It beat mindlessly scrolling through You Tube. Took a bunch of time-lapse videos whilst out there, might try a few more of these type videos, it was fun.

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

Source: https://cree.substack.com/p/the-unlicensed...

The Emperor's New Football Kit

Some thoughts on craft-beer and total football, with a little poem at the end, by, me Paul Cree

originally featured on my Substack PAGE - LAGER TIME - including audio

If you know me, or you know the name of this blog, at least, you’ll know I very much enjoy drinking lager. These days, I don’t get to do it nearly as much as I’d like but I do enjoy a pint, or five. Those that know me well, know that I’m no fan of craft beer. It’s an odd thing to say, as craft-beer is a very broad-church and that rational part of me knows it’s an irrational thing to have a gripe about. BUT, I can genuinely say, I’ve never drunk one I liked the taste of but it’s not the content inside the glass or the tiny can with the whimsical illustration on it, that gets my back up a bit. It’s the perception, in my tiny paranoid mind, that I’m being told this is better, I should be drinking this. Well, what some it, just is’nt

Certain arguments I get; small local brewery versus cooperate bemouth full of chemicals and in many cases, I can understand people’s reasons to opt for the stinky hops, but it’s not always that simple is it. I remember waking up one morning after a night on that Camden Hells and my head felt like I’d been drinking Special Brew in a park, all day. I don’t think it’s all that squeaky clean. Then when stories broke of Craft-Beer-big-bollox, Brew-Dog mis-treating their staff, it made me think of that pious man that runs Canada who keeps getting caught doing black-face. What if, SOME of this craft beer stuff, is actually bollox

In a similar way, all this can be applied to food - see vegan /organic / sour dough etc and of course, to my other favourite thing, football. I’m a Millwall fan and like most Milllwall fans, I know that being in the to- ten of the second-tier in English football, is a decent achievement and if we’re there, it means that we’re probably punching above our weight.

These days, with Man City’s brand of football being the zeitgeist, playing the ‘right way’ means having multiple players that are comfortable on the ball and can move and switch positions. Trouble is, the players that can do that, tend to cost a lot of money. Millwall, not having the financial resources of other teams, have had to rely a bit more on being stifling-boring and defensive or failing that, the trusted four-four-two, blood and guts method. Which is often considered archaic. But what if it works

I’ve sat through and endured many teams attempting to play the ‘right way’ and sometimes, they get no-where. What if, SOME of the proponents of the ‘right way’ are just, a bit shit - see poem below

 

 

 

THE EMPOPERS NEW FOOTBALL KIT

 

They say they play proper football

how the game should be played

passing the ball, from back to front

and back again, all one touch

like a slowed down pin-ball machine

gracefully pinging about the pitch

yet they never get out their own half

they don’t ever score, nor do they

ever win, but the crowd applaud and

the pundits praise, because they play

proper football, how the game

should be played