Watch Middle-earth Talk Episode 51 from Tolkien Moot XI

Tolkien Moot is the name my friend Hawke Robinson chose when he rebranded the MERPcon gaming convention a few years back.  Because of trademark issues Hawke has always kept the conference free, small, and semi-private.  You only had to register to attend an he was always asking for volunteers to help.  The conference moved to several locations before Hawke finally decided to host it in his own home.  He and his sons cleared out several rooms and set up gaming rooms, a lounge area, and this year two recording studios.

Hawke has been broadcasting the MERPcon/Tolkien Moot sessions on the Internet for as long as I can remember.  So even if you only see a few dozen people (at most) in the audience of any of the videos, there was always a live audience watching online.  And the same was true of Tolkien Moot XI, which was held this past weekend.  Hawke has done a great job of archiving many of the videos on YouTube under his Tolkien Moot channel and the Tolkien Scholars channel (originally Middle-earth Radio).

Middle-earth Talk Radio was a podcast Hawke started (now) many years ago.  He invited me to attempt to keep to a weekly schedule with him.  We recorded the podcasts by Skype, he would edit them, and then he uploaded them.  The weekly podcast became a monthly podcast, then an occasional podcast, and now it is sort of an annual podcast.  We just can’t seem to schedule much time to do this any more.

And now it’s not a podcast so much as a Google Hangout.  You can watch the Tolkien Moot XI session here.  It runs right into the closing ceremonies for Tolkien Moot XI but we put in a good hour of Tolkien-related discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dQ6oU9Dv4I

For the David Day fans in the audience, I tried to be gentle but Hawke kept pressing me for an opinion on a new book he had come across at CostCo of all places.   Fortunately, we did not dwell on the topic very long.

Although I have not been able to participate in many conferences over the past few years, I have been accepted as an Attending Professional for this year’s Dragon*Con and I hope to be chosen for some panels (that is up to the track directors).  And I am also hoping to make it to HallowCon in Dalton, GA this October.  HallowCon is run by my friend Dutch Stacy.