What does American Apparel have in common with the New York subway system? No, this isn’t the beginning to a dirty joke (though you’re welcome to provide alternate punchlines in the comments section) – they use the same typeface to get their point across. Helvetica. To many, it’s just the option between Gill Sans and Hoefler in a scroll down menu, but to design geeks, Helvetica is god. Fresh, clean, appealing – just what we like here at GURU Energy Drink.

‘I guess it’s like jeans and a white t-shirt,’ says GURU’s own Helvetica-obsessed Artistic Director Justin Dallegret. ‘Classic, timeless, sexy and ya want to wear it all the time.’

Don’t believe him? You’re too late to see the MoMa’s exhibit, but check out the documentary Helvetica , released in 2007 just in time for the font’s 50th anniversary.

Take that, Times New Roman.

GURU Energy Drink staff members have no trouble getting energized (duh) but ever wonder what music makes our offices buzz from New York to Montreal? It comes care of Justin, our in-house art director, with help from the modern mixtape.

Unless you’re painfully retro or the main character in High Fidelity, it’s probably been a while since you’ve made an actual mixtape. Or even a mix CD. Now it’s all about hearing a song in a commercial and downloading it or picking up new tunes from your favourite podcast.

And yet… there’s still something special about getting a carefully crafted sampling of old favourites mixed with new finds, each song specially selected to be played in a certain order or to match an overarching (and often nerdy) theme. But online equivalents will have to do, including Playlist, a site that allows users to upload songs and share them with friends. Nowhere to scribble between track listings, though.

Check out this week’s work vibe – dubbed “DiscoConditioned Stell’R Rock Mix” – here. It’s an upbeat blend of everyone from M.I.A. to Metric to Iggy Pop plus some high-energy remixes of artists like U2 and Kings of Leon. The perfect pick-me-up for the post-lunch work slump. Well, the second most perfect pick-me-up…

GURU is once again proud to sponsor Fantasia, Montreal’s premiere genre film festival, now in its 13th year (ooh, spooky). Other film fests may have big egos and red carpets, but Fantasia’s got Mothra and fans with a thirst for blood (when they’re not drinking GURU, duh), not to mention a ton of up-and-coming talent. Here are five flicks to keep an eye out for this year.

1. Fireball A special presentation by GURU, it’s no surprise why this inventive Thai action flick (can you say “combat basketball”?) has an energy drink sponsoring its North American premiere.

2. Grace Though it’s not an official theme, the Fantasia programmers certainly felt their biological clocks ticking when they selected this year’s line-up. There’s Bad Seed-inspired Orphan, Village of the Damned-like The Children, and then there’s Grace. Apparently the quasi-zombie baby movie made someone faint at Sundance. You’ve been warned.

3. Dead Snow Two words: Nazi zombies. Just the right mix of Fantasia-friendly gore and campiness, this Danish movie is fuelling rumours that Scandanavia is overtaking France when it comes to new wave horror.

4. Thirst An artsy vampire movie from Korean auteur Park Chan Wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance). Between last year’s Swedish vampire smash hit Let the Right One In, Twilight mania and Fantasia fans’ support of Chan Wook,  no wonder it’s already sold out.

5. Trick ‘r’ Treat This American horror takes “Saving the best for last” to the extreme. The series of Halloween-related vignettes basically got shut out of a studio release and has only been seen by a handful of audiences since its “release” in 2008. By all accounts, it’s worth the wait (and bonus points for its CanCon, including True Blood’s Anna Paquin and Dollhouse star Tahmoh Penikett).

Check out Fantasia’s official site for more info and showtimes. (All images c/o Fantasia.)

So you’re sick of hearing about recession and/or The Jonas Brothers, sometimes in the same sentence // the new Facebook layout bores you and you still haven’t figured out how to integrate Twitter into your online regimen?

Check out the Top Thousand Housand Things everyday and get your smile on:

#987 Picking the perfect nacho off someone else’s plate

#979 Anything that can grow wings

#911 Getting served breakfast in bed

#908 Peeling an orange in one shot

#881 When someone lands on the hotel you just built in Monopoly

#862 The Laugh Echo

and more…

**please try this at home**

**and post on Flickr using the tags Twitter_Botanicalls**

Don’t have a green thumb? Here’s a tip.

We’re obsessed with this system. According to the Botanicalls DIY website, Botanicalls was developed to allow plants to place phone (prank?) calls for human help. ‘When a plant on the Botanicalls network needs water, it can call a person and ask for exactly what it needs. When people phone the plants, the plants orient callers to their habits and characteristics.’

Of course, this is all plugged in to your laptop by USB and you can link it up to your twitter account.

I’m honestly surprised High Times didn’t think of this before.

http://www.botanicalls.com/archived_kits/twitter/

A nerd’s wildest dream is now reality: The R2-D2 projector from Nikko.