We’d like to give warm welcome to our new guest blogger - Scott Sherrard from the Welbeck Project. We asked him ten questions to get to know him a little bit better…

 Who are you?

I’m part of the development team at the Welbeck Project. It’s an ambitious scheme to bring to life a community driven by creativity and based [...]]]>

We’d like to give warm welcome to our new guest blogger - Scott Sherrard from the Welbeck Project. We asked him ten questions to get to know him a little bit better…

 Who are you?

I’m part of the development team at the Welbeck Project. It’s an ambitious scheme to bring to life a community driven by creativity and based on the historic Welbeck Estate. Oddly enough, I live up north near Newcastle, but I’ve been working on the Project for around three years now.

I’ve spent my life in the creative industries, much of it in advertising, where I was MD of Grey London and Chairman of CDP. I now run a brand development and engagement company, the Cambridge Centre.  Understanding the essence of the Welbeck brand was at the heart of our plans.

 What brought you to Nottingham?

I’m excited by the thought that regeneration through creativity doesn’t have to be an exclusively urban phenomenon.

 What keeps you in Nottingham?

I’ve worked mostly in London and Newcastle, both places well known for their creativity and cultural vibrancy – but I’ve been genuinely enthused by the creative energy and imagination of the people I’ve met already through the project and I think together we can make a difference.

 What makes you different to other creative people in Nottingham?

I guess living in Newcastle isn’t what you’re driving at – but location is the key to this Project. I do believe that personal space and environment makes a huge difference to one’s ability to think and create. So the view from the window is probably the biggest difference.

 Where do you see yourself in five years time?

This is a 20 year project so we won’t be done yet. In five years time, I hope we’ll be a lively growing community where people like to live, work, learn and create.  Most of all, I hope to be happily surprised at some of the company we’re keeping.

 What do you wish you had more time for?

I wish I could show more people round Welbeck. The scale of the place is almost impossible to capture in a photograph. I also wish I had time to read a novel more than a chapter at a time.

 What keeps you awake at night?

Reading a novel more than a chapter at a time

 What do you think is Nottingham’s best kept secret?

That it can be more than just a city

 What would you like to see more of in Nottingham?

People driving a little north.

What Big Thing are you currently working on?

Work on converting Carriage Court  is just about complete and we’re looking for tenants.

Image by Macoto Murayama

Digital tutors needed

Do you have skills to offer in film, graphic design, illustration, games design, audio production or other areas? Leicester’s Quad Studios are looking for tutors to provide professional training, creative projects and one-off events.

Booking now open for Digital Futures 2010

Two whole days devoted to the digital economy along with workshops [...]]]>

Image by Macoto Murayama

Digital tutors needed

Do you have skills to offer in film, graphic design, illustration, games design, audio production or other areas? Leicester’s Quad Studios are looking for tutors to provide professional training, creative projects and one-off events.

Booking now open for Digital Futures 2010

Two whole days devoted to the digital economy along with workshops on topics as diverse as “Designing Urban Technologies to Shape the Experience of Migration” and  ”Transforming Energy Demand through Digital Innovation”. Bookings are now open for this event which runs from 11th to 12th October with satellite workshops on October 13th.

Creative agencies alert

Nottingham Trent University is currently looking for an agency or a number of agencies to handle its marketing, advertising and recruitment. Considering all the creative talent we have right here in Nottingham, wouldn’t it be great if it was someone local?

Have a nosy around Nottingham’s community farms and gardens

You’re invited to a national event to celebrate a city farm charity’s 30th anniversary. The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens is marking an important birthday today and tomorrow when you can have a tour around Nottingham’s urban farms and gardens.

GeekUp Nottingham – Monday 6 September

“Geekery, beer, Ruby and some really cool interactive sessions on AGILE techniques”. If that’s your thing then get yourself down to Geek Up Nottingham this Monday.

Image courtesy of GameCity

Hot on the heels of our recent update on all things game-related in Nottingham, we hear that some of the details of next month’s GameCity5 have just been announced. Soon after the gathering of game gurus at the G5 Summit (and a little after a CreativeNottingham insight into the inner workings of this high profile festival) the [...]]]>

Image courtesy of GameCity

Hot on the heels of our recent update on all things game-related in Nottingham, we hear that some of the details of next month’s GameCity5 have just been announced. Soon after the gathering of game gurus at the G5 Summit (and a little after a CreativeNottingham insight into the inner workings of this high profile festival) the news is in about the events, activities and encounters due to take place around the city from 26 to 30 October.  This sounds like something special both for fervent enthusiasts and confirmed non-gamers like me.

“GameCity is part of Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Contemporary Play initiative and celebrates the wider cultural aspects of play in all its forms.”

Apparently the GameCity5 arena will feature a series of relaxing spaces where you can try out upcoming (but still secret) games. Over the course of the festival, celebrated illustrators will decorate each space in their own unique style.

Just a few of the special events are:

Gamesblog Breakfast - a full English and the chance to talk all things videogames with hosting by Guardian Gamesblog correspondent Keith Stuart and a different special guest every morning.

Adam Saltsman in action - children get to inspire this celebrated games designer with their own character designs and plot ideas. He’ll then work non-stop to create an original game using as many of the suggestions possible and you’ll be able to play the final game.

Pac Man Lyon/tea party - play the world’s biggest game of Pac Man around the streets of Nottingham via GPS and celebrate your adventure at a special tea party!

Join the LEGO Universe! - play Lego Universe before it’s released or have fun with the real life version. 

OpenGameCity - this set of tools will be launched to allow you to share and shape your experience of GameCity.

Plus we hear there’ll also be a world exclusive performance of the soundtrack from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - performed by its composer, comedy, a stop motion film workshop for children, a keynote speech from a VVIP (speakers from previous years include include Parappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura, Noby Noby Boy visionary and playground pioneer Keita Takahashi and Media Molecule’s Alex Evans) and more. Watch this space…

A tiny recap. I write short pirate stories under the [...]]]> Ahoy there! It’s pirate and story writing week for me and so far progress is slow… that’s rather disappointing. Unfortunately it’s proving to be a busy week at work and the evenings are rather full, predictably, with MissImp related improv action.

Captain Pigheart

A tiny recap. I write short pirate stories under the unlikely pseudonym of Captain Ignatius Pigheart. He’s a mean old rogue with a penchant for mermaids and an unenviable record in mutiny, marooning and monsters. He’s also prone to unpronounceable bouts of alliteration.

I’ve been writing the stories for fun for about four years. I’m not especially confident when it comes to my writing – in terms of getting it read or published. That might sound strange, given my other interests which mainly involve getting up on stage with no plan and just assuming it’ll work out fine. Well, improv’s different: there’s a team, there’s the practice and experience, and the adrenaline which prop you up. But with my writing..? If it’s crap or no one laughs then that’s even worse, because I’ve actually pre-written it and agonised over the content. You see what I mean?

I first discovered this when I used to act in plays at school, university and a bit after that. Having learned the words, or written them you have an extra responsibility for it to be good. I don’t like that responsibility.

To counteract it a bit I write ‘in character’ which sounds incredibly pretentious but in Pigheart’s case boils down to saying “yaarr, ye face be all a-flounder” and using other authentically historical nautical terms. It means that the stories I write are often best read aloud, to get a sense of the rhythm and the brutally abbreviated words I’ve decided that pirates used. It’s not my fault, I’m not the one who shortened ‘boatswain’ to ‘bosun’.

Pub Poetry & Fear

My Dad dragged me along to a delightful new comic poetry night in Burton on Trent, ‘Pub Poetry – Culture, Real Ale & Poetry’. There I had to pretty much beg to read my story, as they were focussed on poems and stuff. I can honestly say I’ve rarely felt more nervous than when waiting to read my Mermaid Adventure to a group of strangers, plus (and possibly worse) my Dad, step-mum and sister (I think). As a consequence I did drink a little too much. As it turned out that only added to the character and I growled and slurred my way through it.

To my delight everyone loved it and I’ve been attending the nights ever since. Sadly they’re only on about 3 times a year. So, to get more of a fix I dragged Adrian who hosts the night over to Nottingham to run it in the Nottingham Comedy Festival last year. That was really good fun too and since January I’ve been holding the Nottingham version at the Canalhouse on the second Monday of each month.

There don’t seem to be many poetry events which are aimed at comedy. Personally I have a tough time maintaining an interest in anything which isn’t even drily amusing, and have a dreadful tendency to misinterpret the words comedically. That doesn’t always go down well. I enjoyed the recent WriteLion event at the Contemporary Café which was a cool night, but there wasn’t much funny stuff there.

Pub Poetry Nottingham is a fun little night. We get a lovely range of readers with their own carefully crafted comic words in verse or prose, or those more comfortable with poetry karaoke. I read a pirate story and there are more very short stories being read too. Anyone can read pretty much anything, as long as it’s funnyish and you attribute where appropriate. We also have a limerick contest with amazing* prizes (honest*), which gets suitably filthy. You’re all welcome to come – it’s upstairs at the Canalhouse at 8pm – the next one is on Monday 13^th September. You can join the Facebook Group to get reminders and stuff too.

So – back to piracy

My plans this week are to get a domain name – captainpigheart.com – check!

Done that, and the website build is stuttering along. I’ve chosen to jump from Blogger to Wordpress. It’s a difficult decision, because I’ve enjoyed using Blogger, but I’ve realised that I want a website as well as a blog and Wordpress will let me do things that Blogger won’t (like have an unlimited number of pages!). I’ve also been able to transfer my complete history of posts to captainpigheart.com so all I need to do now is re-arrange my content, add some more, and make it awesome cool. All comments and feedback will be cherished. I shall miss my lovely 12,000 + hit count on captainpigheart.blogspot.com but hopefully I can entice people into reading the new one (starting with you).

This is how I spent yesterday

Hmm, don’t seem to be able to rotate that. Ho hum.

I rigged up a nice microphone with a pop guard (note the tights around the mic) and made myself a dinky mini-studio. I recorded three stories (Mermaid Adventure, Lost at Sea Adventure and String Along Adventure. Yes, they’re all adventures!) That took forever – remember the hideous alliteration I’ve cursed myself with? Consequently I have about an hour of audio of me swearing and being tongue-tied.

The faux-pirate accent is quite taxing… I also found that our cat, Merly, is loud enough to be picked up by a mic six feet in the air. That did not help. I then spent hours, literally hours, fiddling with the sound to get rid of hiss (there are many snakes in our spare room) and the four versions of String Along I had to do to say enough of the words correctly. I persuaded Marilyn to record a husky intro and outro for them and now need to stitch those together too.

Buy me, love me. Just buy me. Please.

But why, you may ask. Well, since I’ve neither the confidence nor will to do the publisher rounds I’m going to publish them online as audiobook tracks! For some reason that seems like less hassle to me. (I may be broken inside.) I’m going to use cdbaby.com as it has very reasonable fees and they come across as genuinely decent folk.

It takes a while to get your stuff uploaded, and I’m hoping the third attempt to format the Mermaid Adventure will be successful. If it is I should be able to get the others uploaded quickly enough and with a massive dollop of luck they’ll be available to buy and download on iTunes, amazon.com and a million other places by the weekend.

I promise to hassle you about them, in return I would like you to buy them. They’ll be cheap and I think you’ll like them.

More news tomorrow!

Pigheart in places:

Facebook

Twitter

” More background about our guest blogger,  Nick Tyler. Fancy guest blogging for Creative Nottingham? Here’s how. “

* ’amazing’ and ‘honest’ appear courtesy of Good Faith Inc which has no responsibility for the accuracy of their use.

There’s nothing like a bank holiday weekend for proving how quickly time goes. So here are some opportunities for which now (or PDQ) is the best time to act.

As you might have guessed by now, here at CreativeNottingham we are serious advocates of Nottingham’s creative industries. There’s a [...]]]>

Image courtesy of Hatch

There’s nothing like a bank holiday weekend for proving how quickly time goes. So here are some opportunities for which now (or PDQ) is the best time to act.

Creative industries - tell the council what you think 

As you might have guessed by now, here at CreativeNottingham we are serious advocates of Nottingham’s creative industries. There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Nottingham. Some of which gets celebrated and some of which deserves much more of a mention. So we’re very pleased to see that Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Trent University and others have identified the creative industries as one of five key sectors that can help grow the local economy. Now they want to hear from the community. Tell them what you think by taking part in their survey here.

Share your skills at Rufford Craft Centre

Rufford Craft centre is now accepting applications from professional artists/makers who offer workshops to the public. Apply by Monday 20 September 2010 to be considered for their February to June 2011 Programme. They’re particularly interested to hear from you if you have something new or different to offer.

Work at the Birds Eye View Film Festival

Here’s your chance to work at the Birds Eye View Film Festival which celebrates and supports international women filmmakers. The organisation is currently recruiting for its 2011 festival. They need a Marketing Manager (Social Media, Emarketing and Partnerships) and a Marketing Manager (Print and Distribution). The application deadline for both roles is 13 September so if you’re interested apply here now.

Wanted - Live Artists, Chrononauts, story tellers and more

Hatch is currently looking for seeking performers and performances for Hatch: It’s About Time which takes place on October 10 2010 in Leicester and on 10 November at Nottingham Castle as part of Sideshow, the official fringe to the British Art Show 7. They need performers from any discipline and background and at any stage of their career and they are very interested in new and developing ideas. The deadline for submissions is Friday 17 September. Depending on funding, you may also be paid for taking part! Full details here.

I’m [...]]]> Okay, so a day turned into two, but The Day After Improv confused me a bit about the days of the week. That was on Friday, when I filled you in on our show preparation and right up to just before the show started.

The Day After Improv (two days ago)

I’m happy to say it was a really fun show! All the players had a great time and the audience enjoyed it too. It’s possible we should have bullied them into being noisier, but we compensated for them well, by making a racket in the wings. We had a good turnout for the bank holiday as well, which is when we generally see audience numbers plummet due to the urgent need to get drunk, sunburnt and fall in the canal. Some of the audience may have chosen to do that after the show.

Huge thanks as always go to everyone who came to see the show, help us sort the place out, do the techie stuff, bounce on the door and so on – you’re all magnificent.

Quality, Quantity or Qualia?

What we look for in a good show is pretty difficult to quantify – it’s hard to judge success purely on the laughter and applause levels. Those are brilliant, but some audiences are quiet and it’s only after the show when folk come up to you and say how much they enjoyed it that you realise it actually did go well. (Tip for the audience – if in doubt, express yourself through laughter and clapping – a whoop is never amiss.) The thing is, you want to come off stage feeling like you’re on fire (and in June we pretty much were – the temperature was in the mid-30s!), and when you don’t it can feel disappointing. I find that’s easily remedied by someone else telling me I was awesome. I’m pretty shallow and that gets to the heart of me.

But this was a good one, we had fun and so did the audience. As always we struck the set afterwards (the curtains, stage, seating, lights & sound) and then headed off the pub. We tend (always) go to The Company Inn on Castle Wharf (just doors away from The Glee Club) because it’s cheap, we usually get a huge area to ourselves and the bar staff have become remarkably tolerant of us. We rock up (players, a big chunk of the rest of MissImp, audience friends and family) and present them with a drinks list in someone’s illegible hand. It works well.

With having only one monthly show there can be extreme highs and lows and stress about making every show brilliant. Moving to two shows a month should take out some of the anxiety for players and I think smooth out the rough edges it causes. Of course, performing at The Glee Club will also add a special brand of excitement and nervousness itself.

I’ve extracted some of the most fun pictures from The Day After Improv. Naturally, they are the ones with the highest gurn-rate.

The real Day After Improv

(Saturday) was another day of improv. It’s part of our ongoing mission to up-skill the group and develop all of us as improvisors. To that end, Lloydie ran another long-form workshop, based in part on his training at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade in New York. It’s different from what we do on stage, which is what you’d call short-form or theatre-sports. Our regular shows are made up of short scenes from 2 to maybe 10 minutes at most; long-form is running a game for up to an hour. What we were doing in the cellar of the Lord Roberts in Hockley was four hours of listening and scene-building exercises and games.

Whew, tiring. But very good fun, Lloydie drilled us in an entertaining manner. Anything that can make us into better and more confident improvisors is a good thing. We’ll be doing more of this sort of thing through the autumn and beyond, including getting some international talent to run workshops for us.

September is a busy, busy month:

So what’s next for MissImp?

On Friday 10th September MissImp are honoured and thrilled to be helping The Glee Club test out their venue. We’re doing a 25 minute slot between stand-up comedians, free food and cheap drinks (pound a pint I think!) The whole night’s only a fiver and will be wicked – go to Glee.co.uk for more information and tickets and stuff.

If you fancy having a go at improv comedy, Charlotte’s running a one hour taster workshop at the Art Organisation on Saturday 11th September. The time hasn’t been fixed yet, but when it is you’ll find the details on the MissImp website here.

On Saturday 18th September we’ll be crashing Wirksworth Festival to deliver Improv In The Dales – a two-hour festival special.

Friday 24th September is the opening night of the Nottingham Comedy Festival and we’re kicking it off with ImproCop: The Future of Live Comedy.

On Saturday 25th September I’m running a beginner’s introduction to improvised comedy, from 2-5pm.

During the rest of the festival, MissImp folk are also in the following shows:

HR’d Day’s Night 25-6th September

NCF Comedy Night: The Final (at least two of the MissImp crew are competing) 28th September

Cast Adrift 1st October - an improvised soap opera featuring a bunch of MissImp

Naked Ant Wrestling 2nd October – live sketch show with MissImp players performing as Microwaving Ants

On Wednesday October 13th we start our MissImp In Action show at The Glee Club.

It’s an exciting time to be a comic improvisor in Nottingham. Come and enjoy it with us.

Next week for blogging

I’ll leave MissImp alone for a bit and concentrate on my writing and other pursuits – it’s Captain Pigheart and Pub Poetry next!

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and our website.

” More background about our guest blogger,  Nick Tyler. Fancy guest blogging for Creative Nottingham? Here’s how. “

Yep, that’s the plug again – The Day After Improv – Friday (tonight) 27th August at the Art Organisation on [...]]]> I’m afraid today’s blog entry might not reach the Homeric proportions of rambling tangentiary yesterday achieved. Sorry about that. The reason for my (possible) brevity is the sheer imminence of the show!

Yep, that’s the plug again – The Day After Improv – Friday (tonight) 27^th August at the Art Organisation on Station Street – doors open at 7.30pm, show starts at 8pm. It’s a mere £3 and you can bring your own drinks (including les alcofrolish types) – the TAO guys have a lovely tea and coffee bar too.

So I’m running out of time, but I wanted to give you some idea of what goes into a show.

The shows are monthly so we know they’re coming up and so far it’s been lots of fun to assign them names. In the past we’ve had things like ‘Freaks of Improv’ or ‘Improv Twister’ – next month is ‘ImproCop: The Future of Live Comedy’ as well as The Glee Club show ‘MissImp in Action’ (geddit…?) The name usually gives the inspiration for the poster and provides a bit of a theme for the show, or at least for the audience warm up. We have tried to theme whole shows before and have come to the conclusion that it hampers the performers and restricts us to a narrow(er) range of ideas – for example in ‘The Curse of Improv’ (a Hallowe’en show) we went as far as costumes and it made it harder to break away from what we looked like and do interesting scenes. So we’ve dropped that.

Excite your audience

The audience warm up is really important – we need the suggestions and interaction from them/you. We share out the compereing duties and often have one of the performers doubling as the guy who introduces the games and gets the ‘ask-fors’ or suggestions from the crowd. This month it’s David Ferland McCollough, our splendid French-Canadian amigo who has done improv in two languages – his native French in Canada and, well, France (La Troupe du Malin) as well as here with us.

That means I get to concentrate on playing the games so that’s really cool of him. We like to involve the audience, usually by finding some things for them to shout out which are related to the show’s title. Since I’ve blatantly ripped off The Day After Tomorrow’s poster (the snow was swapped for sand with surprising ease) we’re going for apocalyptic lines – “Get your stinking hands off me you damned dirty ape” (Planet of the Apes) and we’ll develop a good bit of hysteria from that. Once the audience are energised and engaged then we’re off!

Here’s a particularly fun bit of audience engagement:

The crowd go nuts for Queen

So, what’s the deal with the improv bit?

Although the shows are entirely improvised we do know which games we’re going to play (though we sometimes do it entirely blind, where only the compere and assistant know what’s coming up). Earlier this month Lloydie put a shout out for players and then called a meeting at Broadway Cinema’s bar, which is where we usually meet up, and we sorted a list of 20-odd games from our standard list of 60 games which we feel we’re good at, get a good audience response and are fun to play. I’ve just been printing them out on bits of card to go into the hat.

Our assistant (Carla Prestwich this month) will draw games from a hat and then the right number of players. That’s right – not only do we not know what order the games are in, we don’t know until seconds before the game starts who’s playing. It amps up the fun and excitement levels of the players. We’ll also be getting the audience to complete ‘Whose Lines’ – that’s our only pre-planned game as it immediately allows the audience to have a big influence on the scene. It’s brilliant when your line is used.

Preparation

On the jam before a show, we close it so that the only people who get a chance to play are the performers. We’ve had to do this to get that extra playtime and cohesion between the players. Since starting it in February we’ve seen an extraordinary improvement in the shows. I planned the jam and rather than play lots of games we’re doing exercises designed to encourage us to say ‘Yes’ to whatever comes up, to think faster and hopefully be funnier. That includes some really silly games like Bunny Bunny and the Evolution Game. It was a splendid jam, and everyone had fun and (I reckon) were better for the playful element.

Digression

Getting off the train at Beeston last night, me and Marilyn were accosted by what I can only assume to be escapees from Brad Pitt’s caravan in Snatch. In an almost incomprehensible tongue I was asked to help carry a buggy complete with elephantine sleeping child up the stairs, while the rest of the clan shoved pushchairs across the tracks. Quite, quite odd.

Today

The players today? There’s myself, Lloydie, Marilyn Ann Bird, Catherine Clarke, Martin Findell, Carl Jones. We should have had the splendid Charlotte Matheson who was responsible for some of the finest scenes of the last show, but has fallen ill and will be missed on this occasion. Much booing at illness.

Get in

I’ll get to the TAO at half past four, with at least one other strong person and we’ll put the massively heavy stage curtains up. Then a few more people will arrive and we’ll erect the stage, and get the chairs out from wherever they’ve been hidden around the Art Organisation. There are lights and mics to test, stuff, just stuff everywhere to arrange and make ready – do we have the bells, the hats, the lines, the magazines, the flyers for the next show, the cash box, the stamper, the badgers and the budgies? Excellent. Wait-  batteries! And so it goes on. We’re usually fully set up by just after six and the players get to sit, eat and chat for a while. That’s a great chill before the storm. Then it’s time to get changed – show dress is black bottoms, soft-soled shoes and a brightly coloured t-shirt. I may tweak my moustache.s Steve and Elliott will arrive to do the door stuff, Helen’s gonna tape the thing.

After that Marilyn takes us through a relaxing and focussing physical and vocal warm up. We need to be able to project and leap about, and in doing it all together we develop a hokey-sounding ‘group mind’, where we’re on the same (non-existent – no lines remember!) page. It’s a fantastic vibe. Then we’ll play some extremely high energy brain mashing games just before the show starts. By then, the audience will hopefully have filled up and there will some tunes above the verbal buzz.

The music stops, the lights go out. A flash of music, the lights are up, the audience applaud and we’re on!

You should be there, it’s cool. There’s nothing else like this in Nottingham at the moment.

And it’s cheap, insanely cheap.

I cannot express how much I enjoy it.

Still not sure if it’s your cup of tea? Well, here’s a little advert, plus some of my favourite scenes from the last show:

Advert (when is sped up film not funny?)

Word Count at the Dentist – each player can only use a certain number of words when they speak:

Mock-50s advert and romance blossoming

Tomorrow – feedback on how the show went. Plus, some of the gang are exploring long form improv – that’s where we do a scene or series of scenes for about 20-40 minutes based on just one word from the audience. Tough, but fun.

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and our website.

” More background about our guest blogger,  Nick Tyler. Fancy guest blogging for Creative Nottingham? Here’s how. “

Computer games are fun, there’s no denying it. You’ve definitely played one, even if it’s only Solitaire, or Farmville, or Snake (anyone else miss the classic Nokia phones? Ah, the 3310…) They have also blossomed into one of the UK’s highest grossing creative industries, which means that they’re kind of a big deal nowadays… So [...]]]>

Computer games are fun, there’s no denying it. You’ve definitely played one, even if it’s only Solitaire, or Farmville, or Snake (anyone else miss the classic Nokia phones? Ah, the 3310…) They have also blossomed into one of the UK’s highest grossing creative industries, which means that they’re kind of a big deal nowadays… So what can you do to learn more about and get involved with the scene?

Well, thankfully as a Nottingham person (Nottinghamite? Nottinghamian? Nottinghamer?) you have a bevy of wonderful options at your disposal.

For a teeny insight into the life of the worker in this creative industry, look no further than the pages on which you find yourself now. Steve Best is community developer with the Lace Market based company, Monumental Games. He was also our guest blogger for a couple of weeks this August, so check out his insights into the business and what makes him tick.

Next up, you might be wondering where you can go to drink, eat and get serious with the business of gaming. Luckily, the UK’s premier videogames festival is held every October in our fair city, bringing together luminaries from across the globe. What’s more, Iain Simons and his Gamecity team are holding an event tonight, as in this evening, Friday 27th August, 7.30pm, in which they want your participation and feedback to shape the direction of this year’s Gamecity Festival. Titled the G5 Summit, it is being held in Antenna, and entry is just £3.

Finally, what about an event to get over the magnitude of the G5 Summit? You may have heard of Jon Burgerman. He’s an illustrator par excellence and a Nottingham local hero. He has also started a little electro-pop side project with fellow illustrator and musician, Jim Avignon. To launch Anxieteam’s double A-side 7″, they’ll be having a little gig/party down at Cafe.Bar.Contemporary on Saturday evening. It’s free, and to further whet your appetite, here in the band’s own words is a description of their music:

Let’s Eat Soya is their ridiculously infectious, anthemic dance declaration of smutty love in a meat-free-world.  You’ll be humming it for weeks, seriously. Altogether now: “I’m a veggie, you’re a vegan, let’s eat Soya…”

On Lonely In The Digital World, Burgerman dryly takes you on a fantastical journey through a computer game world — zapping zombies with vampire fangs, leaping through rings, re-killing the undead, riding dinosaurs and solving the mystery of the abandoned town.  Then Avignon pitches in with a curiously uplifting but sweetly melancholic chorus. All set to a joyful, bouncing backdrop of rousing electronica.

If that doesn’t sound exciting, then I don’t know what does… Pew! Pew! Pew! Now to get back to my game…