(Jem Warren, photo used with permission)

(Press Release) “The Confession Song Competition” kicked off with a bang, and considering Kiefer Sutherland is involved, we’re not surprised. The action star, alongside legendary British actor John Hurt, is currently lending his talents to a brand new Hulu.com exclusive web series called The Confession, which tells the tale of a lone hit man and his struggle over the forces of good and evil. As one can expect from a show with such star power, it’s pretty badass. In March, OurStage artists were given a shot to have their song featured on an episode of the show, and out of over 1600 submissions, one winner arose victorious.

Introducing Jem Warren, a “tranquil” New York–based singer-songwriter grounded in acoustic guitar with a strong ear for pop. Warren, more specifically his slow rolling Americana-style ballad “Jim Jones,” will accompany Kiefer Sutherland’s butt-kicking escapades on an upcoming episode of The Confession, broadcasting his music and his name to thousands of new potential fans and followers. How’s that for some free publicity? On OurStage, all it takes is a few clicks, a great song (and a little bit of luck of course) for great artists like Warren to win BIG opportunities. Stop by his OurStage profile to learn more about this rising artist, or head to the playlist below to listen to more of his tracks. Stay tuned to The Confession on Hulu.com to hear “Jim Jones” debut in an upcoming episode of the hot new series.

JEM WARREN – Combining melodies reminiscent of Tracy Chapman with a smooth groove similar to Everything But The Girl, Jem Warren has a tranquil musical sensibility similar to artists like Jose Gonzalez and Sun Kil Moon. “The songs on Jem’s new CD ‘Lifeblood To My Soul’ reflect the longing and yearning we all have felt at some point in our lives,” says Warren. “There is nothing more fulfilling than writing a song and creating a sound that deeply moves me.”

“Lifeblood To My Soul” comprises five songs: Fall Apart, Trouble, All I Need, Jim Jones and Freed. Jem composed all music and lyrics in addition to singing and accompanying himself on guitar.

Raised in Carmel, NY, by musician parents, Jem is now a resident of New York City. Living in the city has provided rich material for his songwriting – Jem keeps a diary of his life experiences in the form of song. He poetically expresses his perceptions of his world, writing about everything from love and nature to politics and religion.

Active on the New York City music scene since the mid-2000s, Jem performs regularly at venues such as The Bitter End, The Bowery Eletctric and Caffe Vivaldi and has appeared at the Livingroom and Sidewalk Café. He engages audiences with profound lyrical fragility, genuine storytelling and a melodic, haunting style. A performance schedule as well as CD purchase information is available at www.jemwarren.com. Additional information about Jem can be found at www.myspace.com/jemwarren.

Buy (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar (feat. Felicia Day) MP3 on Amazon || Buy the music video on iTunes

The extremely awesome Felicia Day and the Guild have released a fantastic music video (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar. This is a must watch. Tell Katie Perry and Shakira, there’s a new sexy diva of pop music.

If you haven’t seen this trailer yet, you’re going to want to. Stat! A SciFi, comedy musical with awesome stars like Miracle Laurie (Dollhouse), James C. Leary (Buffy), Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek) and more… bookmark the Cabonauts’ website and follow them on Twitter to keep updated on when this outrageously awesome show starts.

Web videos have become the next big thing in Hollywood, but strict news shows and coverage of the web is only now exploding with places like NewTeeVee and other websites. Now from the creative minds of Kristyn Burtt and Sandra Payne comes a interview show that brings the background scoop on some of your favorite web shows and creators.

The first episode features Tay Zonday in a friendly interview format that makes you feel like you’re right there with Kristyn. Beautifully shot on location the video has impressive quality standards that I can’t wait to see more of. All in all a great first episode and I can’t wait for the next episode with the Cast and Crew of The Crew!

From Clay Robeson comes this hilarious pilot episode of The Super-Goode Friends, a web series inspired by the Murphy-Goode social media campaign – A Really Goode Job. Clay was recently announced as one of the top 50 competitors and, if this video is any indication of the projects he’ll be working on if he gets the job with Murphy-Goode, we’re in for some real treats.

New web series, “The Web.Files,” will launch its inaugural episode on July 8, 2009, from multiple platforms across the web. Planned as a weekly talk/inteview show featuring 5- to 7-minute episodes, it was first conceived by entertainment correspondent and hosting veteran, Kristyn Burtt.

During her coverage of the March 28, 2009, Streamy Awards from the red carpet, Burtt realized that the people she was talking with that night had a lot of untold stories. Stories that she would like to tell.

She devised a plan to create a web series she would host centered around the principals involved in creating the best, most-watched, highest-rated, and most talked about series on the web.

Burtt contacted award-winning filmmaker, Sandra J. Payne, whose SPwrite Productions, LLC, was about to launch its first web series, “Life with Kat & McKay” on its new web portal, PurseDog.tv.

Both passionate about New Media, Burtt and Payne decided to combine forces to create “The Web.Files.” Burtt’s first interview is with YouTube sensation Tay Zonday, who became one of the early break-out stars from that site with his song, “Chocolate Rain,” which currently has more than 38 million hits.

“The Web.Files” opening sequence is now available for viewing. Follow “The Web.Files” on twitter at https://twitter.com/TheWebFiles, or find us on Facebook.

Watch the episodes on Strike TV.

If twisted, gothic-style storytelling is your cup of tea (or if you enjoy stories like “A Series of Unfortunate Events” for the bad things that happen or Sweeny Todd for the killing rampage), you may enjoy the webseries: Penny Dreadfuls. Now, for those of you not up on the 18th century lingo, which I’m all to pieces over, penny dreadfuls was a term applied to cheap, sensational stories that came out as serials once a week. Along the same vein is this webseries, which is extremely twisted. Don’t get me wrong when I say they are – twisted. At the time of writing this review there are two episodes, both which left me with the desire to take a long hot shower and clean off the ick.

Despite their short length, the episodes tell amazingly rich stories (especially episode 1 “Feeding”). The actors are also a treat to watch, compared to other shows that just cast “pretty young things”. Produced, Directed and edited by James Arnall, the stories have amazing visuals and James seems to be able to use “unspoken” moments to get story ideas out. The second episode (“Sleeping Beauty”) features Michele Boyd, who you may know from Season 2 of the Guild.

I can’t wait to see more stories in the Penny Dreadfuls series. Especially since they’re so self-contained the stories can continue on for awhile without much effort (you know, beyond… actually making them). So the potential to horrify me via my computer screen is still huge.

Buy The Guild – Season One on Amazon || Buy The Guild – Season Two on Amazon

The Guild is a show that’s taken the internet by storm. Created, written by, and starring Felicia Day (some of you may know her as Vi from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), this show is everything the at-risk-tech-savvy-youth could ask for. The show centers around Cyd Shermann, Codex in her online world, and it opens to a confession from Cyd to her webcam.

From there the show hooks you and then continues to propel you through all ten episodes (each averaging 5 to 7 minutes), as Cyd copes with the head on collision of her internet world and real life. The show is quickly fleshed out with several other characters from Codex’s On-Line Guild, including Clara, the neglectful mom, Tinkerballa, the tech addicted teen, Bladez, the rebel, and Zaboo, the love-smitten mama’s boy.

This show is a fantastic treat, even if you are not well-versed in the world of online gaming. The story displays some stereo-typical arch-types of that environment, and while the extremes make for some great dialog, the true beauty of the show lies in the relationship of the characters. As with anything we attribute to Joss-likeness, the brief glimpse we get of these characters portrays much more than the stereo-type they represent. Codex begins to battle intimacy issues through personal exposure to the people she spends most of her waking hours with while behind a computer. Zaboo begins to find some of his own independence, and Bladez develops a conscience… Well, sorta.

Additionally, the production value of the show is incredible considering the extremely limited budget the producers are working with. The producers have managed to complete all ten episodes of season one mainly through funding from fan contributions. There are even a few extra little tidbits available for fans who just can’t get enough of the Guild crew. The Christmas Medley is really worth a look, even off-season. Season 2 will be gracing our computer screens sometime before the end of the year and season one will hit the stands as a DVD soon. In the meantime, go to your nearest youtube viewing station and spend a little time with The guild, you won’t be sorry you did!

The best way to find the Guild is by visiting www.watchtheguild.com or search for “The Guild” on Youtube.

The New York Web TV Meetup Presents…

A Very Special Evening with
You Suck at Photoshop
Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch of Big Fat Brain

Wednesday June 3, 2009
For Your Imagination Studios
22 W. 27th St. – 6th Floor – 6:30PM
RSVP HERE

Presented by Tilzy.TV, The New York Web TV Meetup is a monthly event devoted to celebrating and supporting innovation in the exploding digital entertainment industry by bringing together the dynamic community devoted to online entertainment.

Each month, we’ll take an in-depth look at the processes and people behind some of the most successful entertainment products created for broadband distribution, followed by networking with industry peers, artists, executives, producers, and up-and-comers.

Want to catch up before the movie? Buy Thor Volume 1 from Amazon

Marvel announced recently that Chris Hemsworth has been cast to play the lead in their newest comic-book-blockbuster – Thor, which is currently set to release in the summer of 2011. Thor is one of the characters needed for The Avengers, which includes Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America (and later incarnations included Spider-Man).

Chris Hemsworth is most recently familiar  for his role as George Kirk, Captain Kirk’s father, in the new Star Trek movie. From the brief moments he was on screen I can see him taking this role and doing amazing things with it.