You’ve got to like the cleverly surreal work of Ellis Nadler and not just because I tell you to. Often when you look at absurd stuff like this, it can come across as contrived but, somehow, Ellis manages to create something that if you twist your head around the right way, it actually could possibly make some sort of sense.

He’s also a bit of a multi-talented bastard, able to turn his hand to cartoony stuff, portraiture and even photography - all with just about enough aplomb to mean you’d probably want to hit him if you ever met him but you would buy him a drink afterwards to apologise. If you still felt bad about it you could even buy one of his prints at Imagekind. And while we’re on the subject, I’d be curious to know if anyone has had any experience with Imagekind, or similar services, because I’ve always thought that a couple of our toons would make nice prints.

Found through BoingBoing but with kudos to Eirikso. Amie Street is a cross between a digital music store and social networking site. With a view to encouraging the discovery of new music, all tracks start out free and only go up in price as they become more popular. On top of that, fans are rewarded if songs they recommend become popular. The artists themselves make 70% of song sales and never lose ownership of their work. Just as the icing on the cake too, all the music is in DRM-free MP3 and can be played on any portable player. It’s what you might call a pretty fucking clever idea.

It’s not perfect, gets quite ropey near the end, but very nearly works. The kermit stuff early on seemed to work really well.

God, bloggers do seem to like their awards. Nominations for the 2007 Bloggies, a non-profit project, are now open until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Wednesday, January 10 (though they actually say Jan. 10 2005, so that might not be 100% accurate). Finalists will then be announced on the 22nd and voting will begin. The categories are actually quite good and there’s even a Best Kept Secret one - though quite how many nominations you can get if you’re that well kept a secret.

Just came across this at Problogger. It’s a new in-video ad solution set to be launched by AdBrite. The ads aren’t intrusive, you get paid by the view(I think) and you can brand the videos with your own logo. The videos can be shared and embedded in other peoples sites/blogs allowing you to earn more if your video goes viral. No mention of exactly what percentage of the ad-share you get but it’s still a very interesting development.