What you hold in your hands is the long awaited, much anticipated, smartly understated premiere issue of Catalyst, the new arts publication of the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

This is not a lengthy credit card application, a Gap Fall Fashion Guide or a DeVry brochure. This collection of pages shares little in common with the types of inserts one expects to fall from the protective outer layer of our beloved Daily Wildcat.

This is a new magazine, for students, published every Thursday, covering music, film, books, videos, art and culture on the UA campus and beyond. Our staff includes musicians, actors, artists, political activists, fashion designers, improvisational comics, poets and former mimes. We aim to be intelligent, thought-provoking, funny, informative, insightful and - dare we say - sometimes even wacky.

Although Catalyst is presently awaiting FDA approval, the first issue has been tested extensively in Europe, not to mention Guam and the Virgin Islands. Reportedly, tourists outside the Louvre really enjoyed "Dead in the Head," (Page 6), Annie Holub's cover feature on the comedy "Dead Man on Campus." "Dead Man" was manufactured in the land of MTV for the MTV faithful - no surprise it stars a thespian of a truly high caliber, namely Mark-Paul Gosselaar of "Saved By the Bell" fame. Spanish sunbathers sang the praises of our "Shorts" section of the magazine, (Page 4) where the PowerPuff girls share space with Counting Man, and two original Catalyst cartoon strips make their debut: Tony Carnevale's "Dr. Hammond's Nerve and Brain Tablets," and "Poetry 4 Play," by Sukiah Etahi and Inspector 5.7.5. Guam dwellers found our handy calendar of events for the upcoming week quite useful (Page 8), while Germany raised a glass to the Bar Guide (Page 10). In the cafes of Rome, there was considerable praise for "New Release Grease," (Page 18) a weekly column of new video releases by none other than Tony of Greasy Tony's fame. We're only hoping we can keep Tony to ourselves before the Entertainment Weekly people become aware of him. The people in the Virgin Islands were a little hesitant to give us feedback; we suspect they were just a little overwhelmed by all of the other stuff inside.

We hope you enjoy the read.

-laura bond, editor, catalyst