Middle-earth Minutes Blog http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com News, Views, and Miscellaneous from the Middle-earth Minutes Podcast posterous.com Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:43:33 -0800 Micah Discusses LOTRO: Riders Of Rohan http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/micah-discusses-lotro-riders-of-rohan http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/micah-discusses-lotro-riders-of-rohan Broadcasting from California, Micah shares thoughts on the new LORTO expansion.

LOTRO: Riders of Rohan.m4a Listen on Posterous

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Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:04:15 -0800 My 8 Year Old's Tolkien Report http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/my-8-year-olds-tolkien-report http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/my-8-year-olds-tolkien-report For Tolkien's birthday my youngest wrote a report (our kids are homeschooled). Here it is in her own words:

Tolkien Report.m4a Listen on Posterous

Brevity and grammatical errors brought to you by my iPod

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Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:10:36 -0800 Waylaid By Princesses and Goblins http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/waylaid-by-princesses-and-goblins http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/waylaid-by-princesses-and-goblins We are behind schedule at MEM Headquarters. Micah reminds me on a pretty constant basis.

But I have an excuse! The dog ate my podcast. No, that isn't it. Sorry. I've been waylaid by princesses and goblins. Its true. I'm elbows deep in production on the first offering of My Little-earth: an unabridged audio book presentation of George MacDonald's 1872 timeless tale, The Princess and the Goblin.

New episodes air each Sunday at 1PM and 7PM, Eastern Time on Middle-earth Network Radio, and are available for download immediately after. We are planning for the complete Princess and the Goblin Audio Book to be released in late January, 2012. And that is exactly why we're late on Middle-earth Minutes: editing this book is a full-time task. But we are hoping to be back the Sunday after next. And before you know it MEM will be able to be heard LIVE!

Stay tuned. And in the meantime enjoy The Princess and the Goblin.

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Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:59:38 -0700 Crickhollow Chicken Test http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/crickhollow-chicken-test http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/crickhollow-chicken-test

A video test and another recipe in one.

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Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:15:00 -0700 MEM's World-Famous Hobbit Hamburgers http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mems-world-famous-hobbit-hamburgers http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mems-world-famous-hobbit-hamburgers

Yesterday we posted a picture on our Facebook page of Micah mixing up some hamburger by hand. I was passing on my famous recipe to the next generation. It was time. We recieved a request for the details, and so we're sharing our secrect World-Famous Hobbit Hamburgers recipe with you, our friends. But, as Gandalf would say, "keep it secret; keep it safe!"

Why are they called Hobbit Hamburgers, you ask? Well, read on.

  • 1lb. Hamburger
  • 1 tsp. Onion Powder
  • 1 tsp. Black Pepper
  • 1/8 tsp. Dry Mustard
  • 1 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 tbsp. A-1 Steak Sauce
  • 8 crushed Ritz crackers
  • 1 egg
  • 4-5 strips of pre-cooked bacon cut into small pieces
  • 4-5 medium Mushrooms (Bingo!) thinly sliced, no shortcuts
  • A few dashes of Tabasco sauce

Mix together by hand. Take a goodly size portion of hambuger (about 2/3 the size of a tennis ball) and roll gently into a ball. Form into a patty. But, here is the important thing - do not smash the patty! Remember, when cooking hamburgers you want to leave as many small air-pockets as you can in the patty. This allows for the juices to run around in there like a group of Hobbits evading a Nazgul. These hamburgers are going to be huge when cooked. The raw patties should cover your palm, and be about a 1/2 thick. They'll be over an inch thick when cooked! Be gentle when forming the patty.

For an added treat add crumbled-up Bleu Cheese in the very center of the patty. They are wonderful that way!

Grilling (because these are meant to be grilled): If you are cooking with gas, pre-heat the grill on high. Adjust to medium just before laying the burgers on. Grilling, of course, is an art. I firmly believe that you have to feel when the burger is done, but generally about 5 minutes per side will do it. And, as with any beef, rare - medium rare is preferred. No use is ruining good meat :)

These will be the softest, fluffiest, juiciest, and tastiest burgers you've ever had! No condiments needed.

Enjoy. And let us know what you think of this recipe.

 

P.S. Micah's version of these burgers were even better than mine!

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Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:12:00 -0700 Lost A Week At MEM Headquarters http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/lost-a-week-at-mem-headquarters http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/lost-a-week-at-mem-headquarters

We were doing so well with our every-two-week schedule, too! 

Micah and I had to skip Middle-earth Minutes this last weekend (we like to record on Sunday afternoons) due to the youngest Hobbit taking part in the local Community Theater's production of Peter Cottontail. She's been rehearsing for 6 weeks and had three performances this weekend. The kids' grandparents drove down to the Middle Farthing to enjoy the Sunday matinee, too. So we apologize for missing the show. We should be recording this weekend. And pretty soon Middle-earth Minutes will be heard LIVE on Middle-earth Network Radio if I can fit that into the Sunday radio schedule. 

We had planned on discussing Morgoth (Melkor) and Sauron this time, but that is too much to cover in one episode so we'll end up spreading it over a couple shows. Also, we will acquiesce (that's not the correct word!) to listener requests to include more Lord Of The Rings Online (LOTRO) discussions into the show. We're still brain-storming on exactly how to do that, but it'll be fun.

Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you soon.

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Thu, 26 May 2011 16:23:00 -0700 MEM On SOTH With Father Roderick http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-on-soth-with-father-roderick http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-on-soth-with-father-roderick

Last week Micah and I were invited on episode 13 of the Secrets Of The Hobbit podcast with our friends Father Roderick and Dave Kale. We had an absolutely wonderful time! Father Roderick produces some of our very favorite podcasts on his SQPN Network, including Secrets Of Middle-earth and Secrets Of Harry Potter. What an honor to be a part of this amazing program. You can listen to, and download the episode here. And don't forget to subcribe to this and all the "Secrets Of" podcasts in iTunes.

We will have both Father Roderick and Dave on an upcoming episode of Middle-earth Minutes, so listen for that soon.

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Tue, 17 May 2011 15:54:00 -0700 Micah Discusses The Upcoming LOTRO Updates http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/micah-discusses-the-upcoming-lotro-updates http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/micah-discusses-the-upcoming-lotro-updates

A quick news report on the LOTRO update coming May 23rd. Micah offers his opinion in this special audio report posted only on our Posterous Blog.

Micah_Discusses_The_LOTRO_Updates.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Mon, 09 May 2011 10:43:00 -0700 MEM At The Tennessee Renaissance Festival http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-at-the-tennessee-renaissance-festival http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-at-the-tennessee-renaissance-festival
This past Saturday was opening day for the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. We have driven past the Castle Gwynn, off the 840, for nearly five years and have never attended the the festival... until this year.

The kids had a great time and were really in their element! The grounds are absolutely beautiful and a perfect setting for such an event. We found ourselves transported back in time and a continent away. And for fans of Middle-earth and Narnia we caught a bit of a feeling that we were in a magical world. Needless to say we will be attending every year that we can. Micah is saving up for a sword next year.

I pieced together a little video from our day. Our hope is that it captured a small amount of the magic of the day.

Enjoy

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Mon, 02 May 2011 13:29:00 -0700 Enjoy Middle-earth Network Radio Wherever You Go http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/enjoy-middle-earth-network-radio-wherever-you http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/enjoy-middle-earth-network-radio-wherever-you

As Station Director at Middle-earth Network Radio I guess it behooves me to give you folks with smart phones and IOS, Android, and Blackberry devices a heads-up that we are now available through one of the most popular and feature-rich mobile applications, TuneIn Radio. Now, I am only familiar with the IOS platform, so I can't comment on the others, but I was recommended the app by a friend that uses an Android OS phone, and he said it was the proverbial "bee's knees". For IOS there are two versions: the free version, which has a small banner ad at the bottom, and a premium .99 cent version with no ads. I use the free app and couldn't be happier. I especially love the sleep timer feature! The app is great on many levels not the least of which is that a simple search for "Middle-earth Network Radio" will allow you to listen wherever you have a connection to the internet. Added bonus is that it runs in the background for devices that incorporate mulit-tasking so that you can continue reading up on all the Tolkien related news while listening.

For those of you who don't have any of these devices you can always use the TuneIn Radio website in your favorite browser.

As an added bonus for this blog post, Micah and I just finished recording a new station ID for Middle-earth Network Radio. It will go in to rotation tomorrow, but I'm so proud of him that I thought I'd post it here for anyone that may be interested. I love my partner!

MEN_Station_ID_3.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:44:00 -0700 MEM: The Long And Short Of It http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-the-long-and-short-of-it http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/mem-the-long-and-short-of-it

For those who subscribe to Middle-earth Minutes in iTunes, you may have noticed that all of the episodes have re-loaded in your podcast library. There may even be duplicates (if not more) now.

There are a couple reasons for this. First, we found out that the company we use to host the files is doing away with audio only support; they have decided to only host video series (Vodcasts). We have always had a backup host as well. In fact, all episodes are backed-up 7 ways 'til Sunday in order to ensure that they always exist. Last night I spend a few hours switching from the primary to the secondary host; editing things where necessary. The feed was switched twice in the process to ensure that no disruption in availability occurred during the process (believe me, it does make sense). Its all back to normal now but, as I've seen happen in the past, iTune's industrious aggregator wen't out and grabbed all available episodes all over again - thus possible duplicates in your iTunes Podcast library.

Second, and something that I've been meaning to do for a long while, is that each episode name has been shortened to the acronym "MEM..." etc. It has long bothered me that the show title has been repeated with the episode title, i.e. "Middle-earth Minutes - Middle-earth Minutes 12: Longing For The Lonely Mountain". From now on each episode name will will be truncated with the acronym instead. Looks a lot better and we can say "Em-ee-em" during the show. Bonus!

We apologize if your iTunes library suddenly became overcrowded. Just delete any episode that doesn't start with "MEM", and everything should be fine going forward. Unless, of course, we have to switch hosts again.

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Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:56:00 -0700 A Smaller White Council: Exciting MEM News http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/a-smaller-white-council-exciting-mem-news http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/a-smaller-white-council-exciting-mem-news

With the news that Radagast The Brown will have a role in the upcoming Hobbit films, and as he is believed by many to have been a part of the White Council in the Third Age, I found myself in a meeting with the 3 figure-heads of the newly launched Dunedain Radio on the Middle-earth Network, Mark, Candace and John last night. I would like to announce to listeners of Middle-earth Minutes that I have been accepted into their council as the 4th member of the management team!

This is very exciting news in our Hobbit hole, as our whole family loves the good work that is being done there: An Internet radio station dedicated to Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings as a whole, and other Fantasy genre related content.

There are so many amazing things that are happing, and in the works, right now that it would be too much to type. I will give a vague heads-up, though: We were joined by a 5th person on the call, a person that all serious fans of Tolkien's writings will be very interested in. This person will have a very special announcement to be made exclusively on the Middle-earth Network. Stay tuned for the date and time.

On another note, Micah and I plan on recording the next episode of Middle-earth Minutes this weekend. We'll see you then.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/159135/middleearthminutes1.jpg http://posterous.com/users/eERYSDKoTv Michael Kaiser Middle-earth Minutes Michael Kaiser
Fri, 08 Apr 2011 06:13:00 -0700 Middle-earth Minutes (MEM) New News Blog http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/middle-earth-minutes-mem-new-news-blog http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/middle-earth-minutes-mem-new-news-blog

We have had this blog at Posterous for a while now and had, in the past, used it under the name Middle-earth Seconds. It was the "little brother" of Middle-earth Minutes where we'd post short audio clips (crudely recorded on an iPod) of This Day In Middle-earth. Well, with the most recent changes in the MEM podcast this seemed like the perfect place to keep an all encompassing blog - where we can post thoughts and ideas about all things Tolkien, or announcements, pictures, etc. from the MEM studio.

"Why not just post these things on the Middle-earth Minutes website?", you may ask. We'd like to keep that as strictly the home base of the podcast. That way new visitors that land on the main page for the 1st time will see that each post includes audio from the latest MEM podcast. If they enjoy what they hear enough to be a regular visitor, and even friend us on the Middle-earth Minutes Facebook page or follow us on Twitter, they will then have the chance to see these posts from the blog. These will (if all works as it should) be disseminated to the aforementioned two services.

So the new name of this site is Middle-earth Minutes Blog, and we hope that you find some enjoyment from it. For the most part we will not be re-blogging news stories; we do that on the Twitter account. Though we may offer commentary on the stories that we don't cover on the podcast. We have some fun ideas, though.

Until next time - Test over.

Middleearthminutes1new

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Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:12:28 -0700 Sept. 18th in Middle-earth History http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/sept-18th-in-middle-earth-history http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/sept-18th-in-middle-earth-history

Sent from my iPod

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Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:23:39 -0700 Sept. 2nd in Middle-earth History - R.I.P. J.R.R. Tolkien http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/sept-2nd-in-middle-earth-history-rip-jrr-tolk http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/sept-2nd-in-middle-earth-history-rip-jrr-tolk

Sent from my iPod

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Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:08:34 -0700 Middle-earth Minutes Podcast Facebook Page Audio Test http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/middle-earth-minutes-podcast-facebook-page-au http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/middle-earth-minutes-podcast-facebook-page-au

Sent from my iPod

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Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:05:28 -0700 July 22nd in Middle-earth History http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-22nd-in-middle-earth-history-0 http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-22nd-in-middle-earth-history-0

Sent from my iPod

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Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:40:39 -0700 July 18th in Middle-earth History http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-18th-in-middle-earth-history http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-18th-in-middle-earth-history

Sent from my iPod

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Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:36:29 -0700 July 10th in Middle-earth History http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-10th-in-middle-earth-history http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/july-10th-in-middle-earth-history

Sent from my iPod

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Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:56:33 -0700 Fellowship of The Ring and another test http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/fellowship-of-the-ring-and-another-test http://middleearthminutes.posterous.com/fellowship-of-the-ring-and-another-test

Sent from my iPod

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