Hail friends! Micah and I are still enjoying our time – along with mom and the sisters – with our new little hobbit. She is just over a month old and absolutely beautiful. Those who follow me on Instagram know! We will be back with a new episode of MEM soon. Promise.

But, this weekend the whole family is going to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival! Last year we had a great time. I thought I’d post (or re-post for those that have seen it) a short video I edited together last year:

Of course I’ll be taking plenty of family video and photos, so I’ll put together another short video for our friends out in Middle-earth. If you plan on being there Saturday look for an old guy and a tall skinny kid wearing official Hobbit Movie t-shirts surrounded by girls of various sizes.

We hope to see you there!

And That Means Comfort

Yes! We have moved in to a brand new, deluxe hobbit-hole. A move that has been a long time coming, frankly.

The original MEM website was built on Google’s Blogger platform. It served its purpose. Middle-earth Minutes is a podcast, after all. Most people subscribe to podcasts with a podcatcher and never even visit the website where they originate from. But after time we began doing extra-curricular activities regarding MEM, and a small collection of other services were vying for the attention of listeners to the show. I had the conviction that keeping the official website clear of anything other than podcast posts was a great idea. We have a Posterous site that makes quickly posting things from a mobile device easy as being caught-up in a dwarven song about retrieving plundered pale, enchanted gold from dragons. I still like Posterous, and will continue to use it simply for the convenience. But instead of expecting people to subscribe to that as well I will have it automatically post on the new website. Same thing goes for our YouTube channel: instead of asking Middle-earthlings to subscribe to that we will have any videos posted embedded into this new, comfortable Middle-earth Minutes hobbit-hole — which, of course, is not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell. For those that are subscribed to the MEM RSS Feed you should be kept up-to-date with everything going on here in the middle farthing: new podcasts, news from HQ, videos, mini podcasts, and whatever other unexpected adventures may arise. In other words, everything from Middle-earth Minutes HQ can be found right here at middleearthminutes.com. Of course we will continue to keep you on top of the latest via the Middle-earth Minutes Twitter account, as well as the MEM Facebook page.

Without whom…

We would be remiss if we didn’t give credit where credit is due. This cozy hobbit-hole would not be (I could say “not be here”, or “not be what it is” — but the simple fact is that it would NOT BE… at all) without our friend and wizardly designer, cheeseshirecat. Yes, that is his given name. No, not really. Get to know him on MyMiddle-earth. Not only is he a cracking good web-design maven, but he is a very active and beloved community member who also provides the weekly community calendar of events spots on Middle-earth Network Radio which can be heard throughout the day. Here is how good he is: When he asked me to tell him what it was that I wanted this new site to look like and be, I didn’t do him the courtesy of providing a straight-forward answer. What I did was tell him what Middle-earth Minutes means to Micah and me. He took abstract ideas and feelings and produced the perfect, aesthetically pleasing home for MEM on the web! And for this we can’t thank him enough.

The Eye of… Tunes

Lastly, if you subscribe the Middle-earth Minutes podcast in iTunes (and perhaps other podcatchers as well) you will may notice that you now have duplicates of past episodes in your podcast playlist. This is due to pointing our RSS Feed to the new site; just delete the duplicate episodes and it shouldn’t happen again.

Another thing is that we used Disqus commenting system on the old site and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to import those comments into this new site — as I am not planning on using Disqus on this new site. If you know how to do that let me know.

We hope that you enjoy this new website as much as we do. What’s more — we hope to continue to produce the type of content that brings you back often. We’ll see you soon in Middle-earth.

In this episode of Middle-earth Minutes we discuss a real, hand-made Red Book of Westmarch, beautiful photos of Hobbiton, a giggly Smaug, the Mithril edition of LOTRO, the 6th Hobbit production video, and more. Originally heard live on Middle-earth Network Radio.

Links to all stories in this episode can be found at the Middle-earth Minutes Delicious page.

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Come with us far over the misty mountains cold as we feel the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through us during this 25th episode of Middle-earth Minutes.

Links to all the articles we discussed can be found on our Delicious page.

Take a few minutes to take the survey about Middle-earth Network shows. Just select Middle-earth Minutes from the list. We appreciate the feedback we’ve received so far!

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Join the father and son podcasting team as we discuss the Hobbit teaser trailer, the 5th Hobbit Movie production video, and the most awkward Wednesday Bilbo Baggins could ever remember -  all on Middle-earth Minutes 24.

Links to all news articles and videos can be found on our Delicious page.

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Has it really been a month and a half since the las episode?! We have an excuse; we were waylaid by princesses and goblins. Listen to find out more. This holiday season episode includes news regarding a Hobbit movie teaser, Stephen Fry, Elijah Wood, and Luke Evans talking about the films and sets, Lord of the Rings Online updates, enhanced e-book versions of the Hobbit, and much more. For links to all the articles discussed this episode, visit our page on Delicious.

Music: Gloucestershire Wassail by Brocelïande, from the brand new album, “Minstrels of Yuletide: Christmas in Middle-earth” on Swordsong Records.

Micah and I are so very thankful for all of you that listen to Middle-earth Minutes, and we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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MEM 22 featuring a much older Micah after leveling up with a between-show birthday!

In the news: Hobbits could be coming… to Otago? Hobbit are in Matamata. Hobbits reunite for 10th anniversary of LOTR films. The full press conference with Peter Jackson in Hobbiton. Sylvester McCoy takes the gag order in a seriously funny way. Luke Evans can’t wait to get back to work on The Hobbit. Super set pictures from the South Island. Benedict Cumberbatch crawls around on his belly for a workout. Peter Jackson releases 4th Hobbit production video… and puts you in the action!

The links to all these stories can be found on our Delicious page, and includes the two previous episodes we recommend listening to before next time. This is really a test of sorts. Let us know if you like it.

In this episode we discuss one particular Tuesday morning at Bag End long ago in the quiet of the world.

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