Welcome to the Middle-earth Minutes Posterous blog. We will post short items of interest here in order to the keep the official site for the podcast only. To listen, download, or subscribe to the MEM Podcast, please visit: middleearthminutes.com
News, Views, and Miscellaneous from the Middle-earth Minutes Podcast
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.
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.
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.