Middle-earth Talk Radio Episode 25 online now

Due to changes in URLs the most current links to various Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes are being maintained at Xenite.Org’s Middle-earth Talk Radio category.

Actually, it’s been online for several days. I was at a conference this week and just haven’t been able to catch up on everything I’m supposed to be doing.

You can download Middle-earth Talk Radio Episode 25: May 31, 2010 here.

Format: MP3
Duration:56 minutes 36 seconds
Filesize:77.7 MB (81,516,322 bytes)

Opening Music: “She Walks in Beauty” from the album Elementaria
by Rehtaeh

Topics Discussed

• Thank you to all the military veterans who make it possible for us to have the freedom we have.
• Big news – Del Toro resigns as director for The Hobbit movies, now what?
• theonering.net “slashdotted” and the “slashdot effect”
• Peter Jackson’s old Zombie gory spoof movie “Dead Alive”
• Are there zombies in Middle-earth in his books?
• What makes a zombie a zombie?
• The Hobbit play in Norwich Theater – Roy Marsden
• Another Hobbit play in Liverpool at the Empire
• Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” Series, “Legend of the Seeker”, David Eddings Belgariad
• Books vs. eBooks vs. PDFs
• Civilization III vs. Civ IV (Michael thinks Civ IV “sucks”)
• Harvard courses on Tolkien available online, Mark Zender Ph.D., how Tolkien uses language in storytelling
• British Petroleum Gulf Oil Spill
• Adventuring in the Second Age of Middle-earth
• Yahoo Fan Modules Group
• The Numenor Project
• The Numenor Project First Contact Series
• Classical civilization vs. medieval civilization for Middle-earth settings
• No Inns?
• Area later known as Andrast, peninsula in what would be far western Gondor many centuries later.
• Primitive early Men prior to the Numenoreans helping raise them from the darkness.
• Orcs and their daylight and night vision
• Story of Tal-Elmar …. Part IV of Peoples of Middle-earth
• A real palace that could be considered “Elvish” in design according to Michael (make this image for news announcements)
• How role playing games encourages research
• Second Age 1200 to 1600
• When would precursor/proto-hobbits first appear and where
  Adunaic glossary

Closing Music: “Métima Lenda (Final Journey)”from the album Elementaria
by Rehtaeh

You can download and listen to ALL episodes of Middle-earth Talk Radio at the official Middle-earth Talk Radio Website http://www.middleearthtalk.com/ (and why didn’t he include “radio” in the URL? — who knows?).

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Middle-earth Talk Radio Episode 23 now online

Due to changes in URLs the most current links to various Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes are being maintained at Xenite.Org’s Middle-earth Talk Radio category.

UPDATE: Confirmation of Legend of the Seeker‘s cancellation came out after this episode was recorded.

If you enjoy listening to Middle-earth Talk Radio then you’ll want to download Episode 23 of Middle-earth Talk Radio, which Hawke Robinson and I recorded a couple of weeks ago.

We recorded another episode last night. I’ll let you know when that comes online.

Here is a rundown of what we talked about in Episode 23:
Topics:

• Grovelling to Theonering.net
• Michael the “Uber Geek”
• Iron Man II
• Mother Confessor Day foreshadowing from “Legend of the Seeker”
• Burren in County Clare claimed as another inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s work
• Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien relevant to Ireland, Letters #165 and #211
• Flintshire grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien stars in film “Pimp”
• Hugo Weaving will be The Red Skull in upcoming Captain America film
• Tangent: Hugo Weaving’s accent as Agent Smith based on Wachowski Bros.
• Why there is no Jewish Narnia
• Development of role playing games for use as a therapeutic modality
• Israeli Defense Force frowns on Dungeons & Dragons participants (2005)
• Refuting the claim (through research) that role playing gaming causes “weak personalities” or “detachment from reality”
• The Middle-earth Weekend 2010 UK
• The Isle of Rum claims to have inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s peaks of Mordor
• The Isle of Muck ties to Isle of Eigg which ties to Howlin House where J.R.R. Tolkien was reputed to have visited on holiday
• Will Harry Potter have the global longevity of The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings? Vote in the poll.
• Legend of the Seeker, Shakespeare, and J.R.R. Tolkien
• Twitter Take Over on Mother’s Day for Mother Confessor Day
• Save the Seeker Campaign
• How would you produce a TV series on Tolkien’s works?
• Circa Second Age 1000 to 1500 fertile time period
• The Middle-earth 3D Interactive mapping project: ME-DEM
• Merp.com launches version 7.0 of their website
• More rambling from Hawke – mining terminology for “muck”

With music by Rehtaeh
http://www.rehtaehmusic.com

You can find all the episodes by visiting Middle-earth Talk Radio.

Warner Brothers announces Lord of the Rings contest

If you want an opportunity to win an exquisite Lord of the Rings-themed chess set, check out the Lord of the Rings sweepstakes announcement that Warner Brothers just posted at SF-Fandom. The sweepstakes is tied to their Blu-Ray release for Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies.

I mentioned this news in Episode 21 of Middle-earth Talk Radio, which we recorded last night.

The chess set is designed “by The Noble Collection with an ancient map of Middle-earth mounted beneath the playing surface and a base with actual images of the memorable characters and scenes from the thrilling motion picture trilogy.”

New Episodes for Middle-earth Talk Radio

Due to changes in URLs the most current links to various Middle-earth Talk Radio episodes are being maintained at Xenite.Org’s Middle-earth Talk Radio category.

Middle-earth Radio is undergoing some changes as I write this but I wanted to share the news of new episodes for Middle-earth Talk Radio. The site is using a temporary prefix of “new.” during the transition process.

So you can use this new temporary URL (the links should be good for a long time to come, Hawke tells me) to see the new version of Middle-earth Radio: http://new.middleearthradio.com/.

Episode 20 of Middle-earth Talk Radio was recorded on April 1. It’s not loading for me as I write this (so why am I announcing it?) but Hawke is working to get everything working.

HOWEVER: You can download Episode 21 right now and listen to all the stupid silliness that normally gets excised from our rants.

I should point out there is a new forum for Middle-earth Radio as well.

As you listen to Episode 21, my voice fades in and out for a while but I think we got it worked out. You’ll hear Hawke (in the raw/unedited version) help me tweak my microphone.

Hawke normally adjusts the volume when he edits the episodes. When he has time to edit Episode 21, he should fix those problems.

Anyway, there was some important news that I wanted to get out on the Web through the talk show, so Hawke graciously agreed to upload the raw, unedited file. I hope you can hear me talk about the news.

LoTR Film Fan Event In October 2009

Xoanon of TheOneRing.Net contacted me and asked if I could help spread the word about this neat Lord of the Rings music event being held at Radio City Music Hall in October 2009. You may already have seen this press release at TORN or one of the other sites promoting the event.

We may be able to offer a few tickets to fans as part of a promotion later this year. I’ll post an announcement here if/when that becomes a reality. Note that this is not just a performance of the Howard Shore score for the Peter Jackson films. Doug Adams will be presenting a pre-concert lecture.

For Immediate Release
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
SCORE PERFORMED LIVE TO PICTURE
300 MUSICIANS
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
OCTOBER 9 & 10, 2009
EXTRAORDINARY LIVE MUSIC EVENT IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK CITY WITH ORCHESTRA AND VAST CHOIR PERFORMING LIVE TO THE FILM!

Tickets On-Sale NOW for This Two-Night Only Can’t-Miss Event!

New York, NY — Devoted fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings have read the books, they’ve seen Peter Jackson’s Academy® Award-winning films, and now they will have a chance to experience composer Howard Shore’s Academy® and Grammy®-winning score to The Fellowship of the Ring live at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, October 9th and Saturday October 10th. For this extraordinary event, 300 musicians—a 75-piece orchestra and a 225-member choir—have been gathered to perform the complete score to 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring live with the motion picture on a massive screen towering above the stage.

Switzerland’s 21st Century Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Ludwig Wicki and featuring The Collegiate Chorale, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and vocal soloist Kaitlyn Lusk, will perform Shore’s epic score synchronized to picture. Shore will introduce each evening’s performances, which take place at 7:30 p.m., in a pre-concert lecture with Doug Adams, author of The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, and will be available to greet fans at additional events scheduled throughout the weekend.

This once-in-a-lifetime, family-friendly event, held at the most prestigious concert venue in the world, is a milestone affair not to be missed by fans of The Lord of the Rings and classical music lovers everywhere! Tickets are on sale now! Don’t miss it!
Tickets available online at: http://www.radiocity.com (http://www.radiocity.com/events/lord-of-the-rings-1009.html) and http://www.ticketmaster.com (http://www.ticketmaster.com/Lord-of-the-Rings-tickets/artist/932344)

Tickets to The Fellowship of the Ring at Radio City Music Hall are available beginning on the first day of sale through Ticketmaster Charge By Phone and all Ticketmaster Outlets, and beginning on the second day of sale at the Garden and Music Hall Box Office. All tickets purchased for Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall events contain a Facility Charge. TicketMaster purchases are also subject to their service charge. The telephone number for Madison Square Garden Event and Ticket Information is (212) 465-MSG1. The Group Sales number is (212) 465-6080. The telephone number for the Madison Square Garden Disabled Services department is (212) 465-6034; for the Radio City Music Hall Disabled Services department, (212) 465-6115 for tickets and information. The TicketMaster information and TicketMaster Charge by Phone number is (212) 307-4111.

Here are a few sites Xoanon asked me to help promote for the event as well:

• http://twitter.com/RadioCityLOTR
• http://www.facebook.com/people/Theradiocity-Lotrconcerts/848340526
• http://www.myspace.com/theradiocitylotrconcerts

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SF-Fandom is a fan-run moderated Web discussion community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. Founded in 2001, SF-Fandom is part of the Xenite.Org Network of science fiction and fantasy Web sites.

Latest Hobbit info roundup

The latest Hobbit information is that there is almost NO latest Hobbit information. Guillermo del Toro has been giving interviews at the Sundance Film Festival and so far about all he’ll tell people is that he has four actors in mind for the role of Bilbo Baggins.

Of course, del Toro’s movie project is not the only professional engagement built around Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit. A few years ago there was an international stage production that started out in New Zealand and traveled to a few other nations (including Australia).

When you get down to brass tacks, people seem to make more productions based on The Hobbit than based on The Lord of the Rings. Almost every major city in the United States has been host to a local production of “The Hobbit on Stage” and many schools have staged Hobbit plays as well.

I cannot imagine what would be involved in staging a full season of LoTR-based plays but I would love to see someone try to pull it off.

Read Hobbit News to see what else is happening.

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SF-Fandom is a fan-run moderated Web discussion community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. Founded in 2001, SF-Fandom is part of the Xenite.Org Network of science fiction and fantasy Web sites.