Time machine

I was very pleased to see Cambridge's The Haunted Bookshop in the Guardian's top ten list of second-hand bookshops. I have bought many prized items from that shop and there is something magical about hauling yourself up the narrow staircase to the upstairs room and its piles of old children's books. It's a mixture of treasure box and time machine.

Singing is gay

I watched a fantastic programme yesterday about the forming of a choir in a sports-biased boy's school. It was incredibly moving and I was gulping back tears for most of the time. I know - it's pathetic.

Ordinarily I have a low tolerance of this kind of thing - redemption through TV - but this project was different. David Tennant look-alike Gareth Malone made a real difference to the lives of these boys when he set up that choir. This is not the karaoke of 'talent' shows. There is real work here. These are not the look-at-me show offs that normally dive in front of the camera. Some of these boys had to be persuaded and cajoled out of their 'singing is gay' attitude.

There's not enough poetry in the lives of teenage boys. This film showed what a beautiful thing it is when boys are allowed to express themselves. They get such a bad press, but they are under such pressure not display the tenderness they all - all - have the capacity to show. It showed what a stifling and debilitating thing 'coolness' is. It showed that there is so much untapped talent out there. They should show this film in every secondary school in the land, despite the foul language (most of it from the exasperated Malone).

A choir is not so different from a team in a sports event. It certainly is about team-building and doing the best for the whole. The boys who stepped up and did the solos (the penalty shoot outs of choral singing) were amazing. It just shows what you can do, if you have the expertise and have the support of the head.

Music is such an undervalued part of many school curriculums. It shouldn't be. Art, music, poetry, creative writing - they need to be done with exactly the same commitment and rigour as maths and science. They are not more important, but they are as important. They change lives.

If you can, watch the whole thing on BBC iPlayer.

And we will walk and talk in gardens all misty wet with rain

There are times when I can't listen to Van Morrison. But I have reinstalled some of his songs on my iPod and those words from Sweet Thing on Astral Weeks - we shall walk and talk in gardens all misty wet with rain - well, I've always loved those lyrics.

And whilst I'm letting my freak flag fly, so to speak, I should also say that I was in Fopp the other day and there was a tune blasting out that I knew but couldn't place. It sounded great and I was a little taken aback to discover it was Melanie. Melanie! The same Melanie who burbled on about roller skates and keys. That Melanie. It was Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) and appears on A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind, Vol 2, by Amorphous Androgynous which for some reason I didn't buy at the time, but I think I probably will. But download Lay Down immediately. It will make you feel better for the rest of the day.

Frosty skull

I had an email from Sarah Odedina today saying that Bloomsbury are going to go with the frosty skull cover idea I came up with many months ago for The Dead of Winter. I'm really pleased - both that they are going with an image I came up with, but also that they are going with something so bold.

I like Charlie Brooker in the Guardian. This latest piece about Apple evangelists is great. I don't hate Apple. I have an iPod. I like my iPod (even though it has a battery life of about ten minutes now). I download things using iTunes. I can see myself having a Macbook (as long as I don't have to call it that). But if I have to listen to another Apple cult member wandering towards me like a zombie saying, 'One of us, one of us,' and telling me what a rubbish program Word is or how terrible Windows is. I don't care. Shut up. Shut. Up. And that especially means you Stephen Fry. All new technology is the work of Satan. All of it.

And are Apple computers so great? I mean they are white and everything, with slightly rounded corners. But is that great design? White with rounded corners. Is that it? I loved those iMacs with the see-through coloured plastic backs. They were great. They were fun. But ever since they have simply churned out white 1960s retro space-age stuff. It's not ugly. But is it really so fantastic as a piece of design? White with tiny, wee keyboards.

And do they really work better? They are certainly more expensive. Contrary to what Appleoids will tell you, they are always having problems - all Appleoids have an Apple man (or priest, if you will) to come and sort these problems out. Constantly.

I do not feel the need to promote Windows in the way that Appleoids need to blart on about Apple, but Word works well enough for what I ask it to do. It's become far too complicated lately, I will say that (and the compatibility issue between Vista and XP is ridiculous). But when an Apple fan tells you Word is an awful program you do need to remember that they a) have never used it, or b) have the weird Mickey Mouse version that Macs use.

Last week I noticed in the Technology section of the Guardian that there is a bit of a problem with the preposterously named Snow Leopard operating system on Macs. In some 'unlucky' instances, all of the photos stored in iPhoto are deleted or overwritten when you upgrade. All your photos gone. Poof!

iCaramba!

The backs

I rode over to the Backs today and took some photos from Queen's Road. I had spotted a while back that the buildings here looked fantastic in the late afternoon light. King's College Chapel is such an extraordinary structure with those minaret-like towers at each corner and the gigantic west window. It is easy to take it for granted, seeing it almost every day as I do - until you see it in light like this.

Undead books

Holy neck, Batman - we seem to have been taken over by teenage vampires. Those graphic designers certainly have run through every design possibility from A to B.

Great Marina Hyde piece in the Guardian today about Geri Halliwell. Marina Hyde has rehearsed her celebrity-culture-as-harbinger-of-the-apocalypse shtick many times, but it still makes me laugh.

Art, bicycles, furniture, illustration.

I'm off to London today. John Clarke, my studio mate, is showing some of his paintings at our friend Malcolm Harding's furniture showroom in Shepherdess Walk. Malcolm's private view invite promises 'Art, bicycles, furniture, illustration', which is a combination you don't see every day.