EVENTS/ENTERTAINMENT , GENERAL , PERFORMANCE/ENTERTAINMENT , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
March Recap- 3 lg. Eventertainment Packages in 1 month!

This Year of the Horse is off to quite the gallop with Catalyst Arts producing 3 large Eventertainment Packages in March!

March 8th- GATSBY FUNDRAISING GALA

A local Montessori school threw a 20’s themed soiree at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland on March 8th.
Catalyst Arts was brought in to provide some flapper showgirls to greet guests with a glass of bubbly and to add some pizaaz to the auction, a fabulous Become the Art Photo Studio, and some swing dancers to get the dance portion of the night swinging!

March 19th- AQUATIC ENTERTAINMENT for GOOGLE CITY EXPERTS

This Sea themed event was held at the Aquarium at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
Catalyst Arts had a Mermaid Tray lady greeting guests and distributing glow sticks, 2 aquatic Airbrush artists doing sea themed tattoos & face paint, a Contortionist, and a UV Black light Seahorse cart with roller skating jellyfish dancers! Click Here to to see all the Images!

March 28th- ‘A DREAM IN 3 ACTS’ CLIENT APPRECIATION PARTY

We produced an incredibly customized entertainment package for this event on Treasure Island with custom costumes and characters and our package included: Contortionist Twins, Aerialist, Shadow Dancers, 4 Antoinette characters, Black Light Antoinette dancers, and a Light up Stilt Walker.
Image Gallery here

 

CREATIVITY/ARTS , EVENTS/ENTERTAINMENT , PERFORMANCE/ENTERTAINMENT , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
2013 SF Opera Ball Gala features Catalyst Arts entertainers

The San Francisco Opera Ball Opening Gala was at SF City Hall On September 6th, 2013.

Celebrity event planner Colin Cowie hired D & D Productions and Catalyst Arts to help him realize his vision for the theme ‘Garden of Good & Evil’.

Catalyst Arts customized eventertainment package for the event included:
2 golden masked stilt walking butterflies, 1 giant viney 4 legged stilt creature, a green lady bird living centerpiece, 3 body painted living statues that came to life to perform,  and a fire dance performance.

See our GALLERY of Images from the Event-

See the VIDEO Below

Direct Video Link-

This large package was a great challenge and the high profile event was very exciting for Catalyst Arts to be a part of. 

As a result, we now more officially offer Living Statues and body painted dancers and contortionists to our ever expanding eventertainment menu!
 

CREATIVITY/ARTS , EVENTS/ENTERTAINMENT , INSPIRATIONAL , PERFORMANCE/ENTERTAINMENT , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
Catalyst Arts Debuts Become the Art Cart at a Grand Circus Gala!

On July 10th, Catalyst Arts joined dozens of performers and caterers for the annual ISES Gala at SF Old Mint. For those who don’t know – ISES is the International Special Event Society, which is the association for special event professionals, so of course, we were excited, not only to show off our beautiful circus-themed stilt walkers and serving skirts, but also to debut a special new Signature offering: our unique Become the Art cart!

Become the Art Cart is an interactive mobile photo opportunity suitable for any event. That night, the cart was particularly popular amongst the ISES crowd, because unlike most stationary photo booths, this one wheeled right up to people. Sporting a nice golden frame and a attended by a pro photographer (in this case Gustavo Fernandez) and a friendly costumed attendant.  The Become the Art Cart allowed guests to choose from a variety of custom-made props- from the ever-so popular mustaches on sticks to the cute circus hats and boas. After a click and flash, the playful experience becomes a very unique photo gallery to bring back memories well after the event is over.

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For the second half of the event, we collaborated with The Other Woman, an event catering and planning service. Their delicious treats settled nicely on our Sweet Cakes Serving Skirt. At first people weren’t sure if the desserts were for display only – but after a little encouragement, anyone who had a sweet tooth eagerly snatched a snack to taste.

All in all, this event was a huge success and milestone for Catalyst Arts. We were able to get our name out there with event planners, made friends with talented performers, and debuted our brand new Become the Art cart, which was so enthusiastically received. Now we can’t wait to get the cart to it’s next special booking — maybe somewhere near you?

To see the full gallery- go to

EVENTS/ENTERTAINMENT , PERFORMANCE/ENTERTAINMENT , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
Big Love heArt Frame makes the S.F. Chronicle! (then flies to Vegas)

Audette Sophia of Catalyst Arts teamed up with photographer SaraBek to bring the Signature ‘Big heArt Frame’ to the 1st annual Eternity Ball at Fort Mason, SF.

We had fun capturing  great shots of the guests in the Love frame on Valentines Day- see Gallery here

And so did a photographer from the San Francisco Chronicle. (who unfortunately did not attribute us credit)

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And in March, Audette will be toting the heArt onto an airplane and heading to Las Vegas for The Face and Body Paint Convention. One night she will be framing the face painters and their creations.

CREATIVITY/ARTS , PERFORMANCE/ENTERTAINMENT , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
Tropical Paradisio Stilt Walkers make the news at Sonoma Fundraiser


Noche en Copacabana August fundraiser event for La Luz. 3 Signature Stilt Characters of Catalyst Arts Entertainment in Carmen Miranda and Bird of Paradise costumes.
Below Photo Credit to William Murray

Catalyst Arts Stilt Walkers photo William Murray

Carmen Miranda Flora Stilt Walker at Copacabana Nights

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READ full news clip Here–

SEE Full Image GALLERY–

La Luz Web Site

CONSCIOUS MEDIA , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS , REVIEWS
‘This Is It’ & 2012 Review

I went on a movie marathon the other day and watched both movies pretty much back to back. Here are my reviews…

THIS IS IT-
This movie basically showed us Michael Jackson’s swan song- the epic tour he was working on full throttle (tickets already sold out in most cities it would be visiting). I thought incorrectly that rehearsal footage would not be compelling enough to keep me engaged for a 2 hour film. It was fascinating to see the process, the incredible production value, and to get such a close up on the man- who’s voice and moves were as impressive as ever!

On on one hand it could appear like a tragedy that this tour never got to be realized. On the other hand, it is realized and brought to the world through this movie, and may likely more people in that medium than it would as a music tour.

I was very touched by the new rendition of Earth Song and his clear caring message about the Earth.
In his words “That’s why I write these kind of songs, you know, to give some sense of awareness and awakening and hope to people. I LOVE the planet.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5zIzzXL0g]

Here is a video of his ‘final rehearsal’ of They don’t really care about us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qE22UOlQts]

It was truly inspiring to see the passion, emotion and message behind it all and how epic of a production he was making.
Go see the movie!

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2012

Going to see a film with the title 2012, I was hoping for some deep messages, considering that there are a lot of complex and profound prophecies and theories about what kind of transformation might happen at that time. That is asking too much of Hollywood. Instead it co-opted and oversimplified the Mayan prophecy and turned it into an unrealistic, way oversensationalized action film about the end of the world.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT IT

* It put 2012 on the radar screen of the mass public from a doom gloom fear perspective only
* It underplayed the deaths of millions and overplayed the plight of one family clinging to their lives
* It got cheesy a few times and the unrealistic factor took me out of it when I should be most compelled
* It put all responsibility for our demise on the earth/sun instead of our own actions
* It could of and didn’t really interject any truly redemptive or spiritual messages

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT IT

* There is something very cathartic and profound about seeing such extreme destruction and sort of having the worst case     scenario played out on the screen to experience without experiencing.
* The effects were impressive and well done, and the action was quite exciting.
* There was also some commentary about social values, power politics and compassion.
* It did highlight for me how fragile and precious is the life we have right now and how much we should appreciate it.

What both movies had in common is that I walked out of the theater feeling so GLAD TO BE ALIVE!!!

CONSCIOUS MEDIA , CREATIVITY/ARTS , PR/MEDIA RELATIONS , Uncategorized
Mtv- Music Television or bad “reality” tv?

Mtv stands for Music Television. But don’t go looking for music videos anymore, unfortunately they have been replaced by a whole slew of bad “reality” tv shows.  VH1 is almost as bad. I don’t watch a lot of tv, but when I do, I want to check out some new music videos, so I go to these two channels and instead get subjected to superficial immature (but eye candy) people and their weird competitive interactions, and shows designed to get people to cut each other down so that they can be the “love” or “best friend” of some slightly famous person. 2 questions– What kind of values are these shows promoting? And What does any of this have to do with music??

A recent article in the New York Times entitled ‘Make Room, Cynics; MTV Wants to Do Some Good’ seems to claim that I am not the only one complaining about recent programming and that the executives have taken note and had a meeting to discuss a transformative direction in their programming.

“Meet MTV for the era of Obama. After years of celebrating wealth, celebrity and the vapid excesses of youth, MTV is trying to gloss its escapist entertainment with a veneer of positive social messages.

Last fall, after the financial crisis erupted but before the presidential election, MTV executives gathered in New York for meetings to discuss the direction of the network and whether programs like “The Hills,” which chronicles the lives of the young and rich in Los Angeles, and “My Super Sweet 16,” a weekly visit to over-the-top coming-out parties, had trapped MTV in a decadent age that was passing.”

Let’s hope so.  Apparently, the ratings have going down, and so this discussion of values motivated by that, and also because Viacom, the network’s parent company has a new deal with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to make “shows more supportive of education.”

When can we expect to notice any positive educational changes in programming? Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks says  “It’s not like you flip a light switch from one type of programming to another…” and that  “The notion of escapism will still live next to inspiration.”

Hm… What an interesting quote, huh? It is true, we do turn to the TV to provide us an escape, and that is fine. Personally, I am more interested in Music and Inspiration than junk food reality tv escape, so I will hope that MTV follows through with their intentions and in the meantime, I will just keep the TV off. ☺

By, Audette Sophia

You can read the whole article at :