Rumours of the death of the music industry may be greatly exaggerated, but we've all got to go some time. How about making a lasting impression with your remains? Death metal fans - it's not just for you.

www.andvinyly.com (see what they did there!) will press up 30 discs with your name, audio you supply (up to 12 minutes per side) and something you don't find enough in music - you can genuinely pour yourself into it. Well, someone else can pour your ashes into it, after you are dead. Could be a little soulless (I believe that bit's going elsewhere...) but you can always opt to record a speech, or simply have silence which will only be interrupted by your pops and crackles.

The basics cost £2000, extras range from "bespook music" at £500 a track, and distribution "to reputable vinyl stores worldwide" for £1000, to artwork from renowned portrait painter James Hague for £3500.

With the British music industry desperate to extend copyright terms from 50 years to life + 70 years, it could be said that there is an increading demand to reap shareholder value from the grave. But at least these guys are upfront about it.

For the record, my choice of funeral anthem is "God Gave Rock And Roll To You". I'm not yet sure if I want to be part of the recording.

Suggested playlist choices for your AndVinyly compilation:
1. "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" - Dead Or Alive
2. ... errr...
3. ... that's it.
(feel free to comment with more)

I'm not sure whether I miss pencils. I was a big fan of sketching (ideas, words, pictures) but found it so easy to lose bits of paper that I went all-digital as soon as the Palm Pilot came out.

But I keep reading and finding that there is something special about getting something down on paper. Ideas can flow in a way that computers and phones don't allow, even with touch screens.

So it turns out that the pencil business isn't just surviving, it's booming, and if you want one web site that can tell you EVERYTHING about it, you'd be hard pushed to beat www.penciltalk.org. It triggers memories of the smell of wood shavings and the strange thrill of supply hunting. For me, stationery shops feel full of potential, as if the right pen contains all the best words it could ever write - it's just a case of finding that pen and shaking the words out.

However, I doubt there are many back-to-schoolers packing a new Porsche P3120, machined from a single block of aluminium (like a Macbook Pro, in pencil form) with a street price of around £90.

At the (slightly) more affordable end of the market, debate is raging on Boing Boing about the merits of a new line of "Blackwing" pencils. Apparently the discontinued Blackwing 602 has a cult following, with the original 50 cent cedar and soft waxy lead pencils now selling for up to $39 each. Music writer Stephen Sondheim, animator Chuck Jones and novelist Joseph Finder are among this pencil's fans of legend.

I think many creative people who crave breakthroughs so much, they would love to believe that the right tool makes the difference. I'd love to find some research to see if it does. Marketing hype aside, if you write with Blackwing pencil into a Moleskine journal, and it makes you feel like a better writer, are you any closer to unlocking your inner genius? Or if you invest in a Porsche, can it bring out the Jeremy Clarkson in you?

"I have just paid £90 for a pencil which is much like other pencils, and now I am angry, bitter and in need of a rant."

Yes, I believe it can.