THURS 4 MARCH // 20:00 // £5 // CCA GLASGOW //
Ticketline 0141 352 4900

Get dazzled, get razzled, get frazzled, it’s time for SuckerBallz! Come on down for a night of wacky videos, kooky dancing, and more! So pull on your suckerpantz and get ready for some zany SuckerBall Surprises with your hosts Rachel and Yann!

Comedy and satire are the key elements to tonight’s programme. Yann (also known as The Amazing Rolo) is the inventor of the wildly popular Wii Loop Machine, the Mujik music remixing system for the iPhone and many other innovations in alternative music control. Tonight he shows off his new interactive performance ExerciseMagic!! (in which he deconstructs and interacts with a nineties aerobics video - Real Results with Corontation Street’s Beverley Callard) and a selection of his short films.

Rachel meanwhile presents her hyper-glowing surrealist vision of Scottishness as explored through a selection of her own videos, including Tae Think Again and her newest work Going Bananas. Susan Boyle, gangs of kilt-wearing robots and Mary Queen of Scots make up the cast of these funny and provocative pieces. Rachel describes her work as ‘both nauseatingly positive and cheerfully grotesque’.

A Q&A with the artists will follow in the form of Suckerballz, the oddest game of bingo on Earth…

Cryptic Nights relaunches in 2010 with WATCH iT!, a multimedia dance odyssey by breakdancer and choreographer Tony Mills.

We’re thrilled and proud of the acts Cryptic Nights hosted in its first year, and the wonderful response they received from our Glasgow audiences. But if possible we’d like to raise the bar for 2010, and this is a great way to begin.

This show went down a storm at the Edinburgh Festival in 2009, where it was hosted by Dance Base. WATCH iT! is one man’s love / hate relationship with his TV, expressed through a striking mix of breakdance, physical theatre and cutting-edge animation. Tony will be developing the piece further for his Cryptic Nights performance.

Don’t miss the first Glasgow performance of this exhilarating and funny take on a modern obsession.

“A show that’s as clever as its title… and a good reason for couch potatoes to get out more” ****
– The Herald

“Essential viewing… not only for lovers of dance but also for theatre enthusiasts” *****
– The Skinny

with live music and a DJ set from The Niallist, a surprise film in the CCA cinema, and a Christmas Feast to kick things off…

The first 25 to book for our first Christmas Special will be treated to a free Cryptic Nights Banquet in the café/bar. Everyone else is welcome to eat too for the additional cost of £5, or else enjoy a drink at the CCA bar.

Following the banquet we’ll show a surprise film in the cinema to let the food go down, after which the DANCING will commence as the Niallist takes to the stage.

The Niallist describes himself as ‘The White Barry White / The Fat Mike Patton’, and has an unhinged passion for DISCO and NORAVE (a genre he has pretty much sparked off in his own right). Ahead of his coveted slot at Optimo’s Hogmany Bash this year, we’re thrilled he has agreed to do a special one-off set for us, accompanied by live visuals.

Nearing the end of our first year, we hope you’ll be out to help us celebrate a great first run that has featured horror, technological innovation, comedy, live music collaborations and pitch black installations and lots in between.

TO BOOK PHONE THE CCA BOX OFFICE ON 0141 352 4900

Cryptic Nights will be returning in February 2010. Watch this space…

The deadline for proposals is Thursday November 19th 2009.

‘Tis the Halloween season, and Cryptic Nights brings you a programme from Film Network, the BBC’s showcase for British short film. This selection of both earthly and supernatural horrors illustrates the twisted imaginations and ideas currently emanating from filmmakers around the UK.

bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork

5pm - 10pm // £5

Gail Anderson Sneddon

Choreographer and film-maker Gail Anderson Sneddon presented two short films and a live installation exploring pitch blackness, animation, sound, live performance and a lot of smoke.

gailsneddon.com

DARKNESS - Installation (see a video preview here).

Based on Nyctophobia (fear of the dark.)

This Installation is an alternative to the traditional electronic gig formula incorporating animation, sound, live performance, spatial design and a lot of smoke. The audience journeyed through an ever-changing maze of darkness.

Darkness as something solid and real, more than an absence of light. It touches the skin, questing, exploring, and gliding through the mind. It slips into your lungs, behind your eyes, into your mouth.

THE FALL OF ADAM - Short Film
The Fall of Adam is an urban regeneration of Adam’s fall from grace.

EXPLOSION - Short Film
Pilot short based on spontaneous human combustion

There were also be live music and projections in the CCA café featuring Jim McKenna and Brian D’Souza.

Commissioned by BBC Films and BBC Comedy shorts in association with Film Network.

1) Where Have I Been All Your Life?
Jim Field Smith / Idiotlamp / 2007
Producer: Alan Traquair
Cast: James Corden, Imelda Staunton, James Cosmo, Katy Wix, Perry Benson

In a quest to track down his biological Dad, a young man inadvertently uncovers a series of dark secrets.

2) Albert’s Speech
Richard Fenwick / onedotzero / 2008
Cast: Nicholas Burns / Katie Lyons / Tim Healy / Di Botcher / Stuart Laing / Steve Oram

GBH, murder, nuclear strike - just one man’s desperate quest to avoid delivering the best man’s speech.

3) One Of Those Days
Hattie Dalton / Memory Box Films/Umbrella Entertainment/Rocket Pictures / 2008
Cast: Derek Jacobi / Joanna David / Deborah Findlay / Hugh Bonneville / Joe Absolom

Howard and Jean are the victims of a bureaucratic cock-up on one of the busiest days since… well, ever.

4) Trimming The Fat
Matt Huntley / Idiotlamp / 2008
Producer: Alan Traquair
Cast: Mathew Horne, Tony Way, Vincent Franklin, Steve Evans, Sinead Matthews, Ben Willbond

When a hotel barman discovers a guest is an old school friend he becomes determined that they hang out for the night. As boundaries are crossed it can only be a matter of time before it all ends in tears.

5) This Way Up (Oscar nomination: Short Animation Award 2009)
Smith and Foulkes / Nexus Productions / 2008
Producers: Charlotte Bavasso + Christopher Reilly / Co-producer: Christine Ponzevera

Laying the dead to rest has never been so much trouble.

A game of love, war and telepathy celebrating New Media Scotland’s 10th birthday with new work created and curated by Alt-w Fund supported artists Thomson & Craighead, Sarah Kettley and Distance Lab with new writing by Netwurker Mez and Hannu Rajaniemi, choreography by Sue Hawksley and music by Peter Gregson.

The game itself begins eight days before with tales of two lovers told via the @mediascot Twitter stream. The tweets will contain clues to find and enter a secret location in Scotland. With custom iPods to be won, elements of the live event and those online will help you solve other puzzles. Play on.

alt.win.ning.com

Find this even on last.fm

Any Color Black, a Glasgow based house rock duo, will add another dimension to their hybrid sound at Cryptic Nights. The Viridian Quartet, a contemporary string quartet, will provide an unconventional backdrop to their heavy electro beats and frenetic rock guitars. Melding digital and acoustic sounds, the performance will be visually accompanied by an intense light show and their trademark strobes…

Any Color Black are an electro rock duo from Glasgow, consisting of Louise and Andy. Their ‘house-rock’ sound developed from their shared distorted musical vision that combines throbbing electro bass drums and frenetic guitars.

They met at 4am one morning on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street while in search of some post drink snacks and a taxi home. Somehow they ended up in a shopping trolley and have been tolerating each other ever since.

Having supported the likes of Goose and Ladyhawke,  and released their debut EP - Touch Me in 2008, Any Color Black kicked off 2009 with a o2 Academy Live tour and an Apple store performance.

anycolorblack.com