Helvetica film soundtrack favorites El Ten Eleven hit the road this week for a US tour. Be sure to catch them live if you can:

05.29.08 | Las Vegas, NV | Beatles Revolution Lounge
05.30.08 | Pasadena, CA | No Future Cafe
06.01.08 | Hollywood, CA | Hotel Cafe
06.03.08 | San Francisco, CA | Thee Parkside
06.04.08 | Eugene, OR | Luckey’s Cigar Store
06.05.08 | Seattle, WA | Sunset Tavern
06.06.08 | Portland, OR | Towne Lounge
06.07.08 | Boise, ID | Neurolux
06.08.08 | Salt Lake City, UT | Urban Lounge
06.09.08 | Denver, CO | Hi-Dive
06.11.08 | Kansas City, MO | Record Bar
06.12.08 | St. Paul, MN | Turf Club
06.13.08 | Madison, WI | The Annex
06.14.08 | Grand Rapids, MI | Founders Brewing Co.
06.15.08 | Chicago, IL | Schubas
06.17.08 | Cleveland, OH | Beachland Tavern
06.18.08 | Buffalo, NY | Mohawk Place
06.19.08 | New York, NY | Knitting Factory
06.20.08 | Brooklyn, NY | Union Hall
06.21.08 | Pittsburgh, PA | Brillobox
06.23.08 | Chapel Hill, NC | Local 506
06.24.08 | Charleston, SC | The Village Tavern
06.25.08 | Tampa, FL | The Orpheum
06.27.08 | Jacksonville, FL | Club TSI
06.28.08 | Atlanta, GA | AFTERLIFE @ MASQUERADE
06.30.08 | Austin, TX | Beauty Bar
07.03.08 | Prescott, AZ | the Raven Cafe
07.04.08 | Phoenix, AZ | Ruby Room
07.05.08 | Tucson, AZ | Plush
07.31.08 | Costa Mesa, CA | Orange County Performing Arts Center

You got it. Actually, if it were truly minimalist, this bag wouldn’t have any printing on it at all. But I digress. The “Film” bag is available now in the shop. No mention of my name, or that it’s a documentary, nothing. Just the word Film, in Neue Helvetica 75 Bold. ‘Nuff said.

Last week, this blog suffered from what’s known as a “denial of service” attack. That’s when spamming software floods a server with hundreds of thousands of bogus requests, effectively blocking all legitimate web traffic and slowing the entire server down to a standstill. After some tech maneuvering, we had to relocate the blog to a new directory on the server, which effectively changes the URL to all our past blog posts. So if you’re bookmarking this blog, or getting an RSS feed of it, you need to change the URL from helveticafilm.com/blog to helveticafilm.com/newblog

Death to spammers.

I’m honored (or should I say honoured) that the film is being shown at London’s historic Barbican Centre this weekend. So I’ve decided to break my self-imposed moratorium on attending screenings of the film, and I’ll be there to present it. This Saturday, April 26th, at 2pm. Tickets are limited, book here. Cheers!

We just got a box of the Blu-ray discs in… cool. Popped one into the Playstation 3 (which I purchased strictly for research purposes, really) and guess what, they work! I like the way the Blu-ray menu system works. While you’re watching a film, you can navigate the menus and sub-menus (like chapters, extras, etc.) in a transparent layer on-screen, while the film is still playing, so you never have to stop or go back to the main menu. The picture is awesome, and all the type on the menus and in the film is razor sharp.

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for shiny new technology. Keep our Capitalist/Consumerist economic system strong and buy a Blu-ray player on your way home from work today. It’ll make you sexier than you already are. And you *are* sexy.

The Blu-ray edition of Helvetica is now available on Netflix. Add it to your queue.

The Rather Difficult Font Game.

We ended up having some extra tote bags left over from our Blu-ray deluxe edition, so we decided to screen another design. Since we (and probably you) are tired of seeing “A documentary film by…” printed on everything, we decided to take it down to the basics:

We thought about making them red on black, sort of a spin on those ubiquitous Knoll totes. But after a coin flip, white on black was the winner. Should be a few of them up in the shop in a week or so.

The screenings continue… this month there are events in Memphis, Nova Scotia, Waterloo, Auckland, Santa Barbara, Weisbaden, Rochester, London, Christchurch, and Vancouver. Check the screening schedule for details (scroll down).

The suave folks at Blanka and Candy organized a 50 Years of Helvetica print show that’s been touring exhibit spaces worldwide. Now they’ve made a short film of the opening at the Design Museum London for your viewing pleasure.