I've been having email problems lately so Hawke's first attempt to advise me that the episode is available for download did not reach me.

As we recorded the fourth episode tonight, Hawke informed me that the second episode can now be downloaded from Middle-earth Radio.
Hawke's description of the show reads:

Michael Martinez and Hawke discuss J.R.R. Tolkien on this weekly broadcast/podcast. Overview of this show * Introductory music by The Starlit Jewel - Elvish Lullabye * Search for Gil-galad's car * Actors and New Line Cinema lawsuit settlement * Bruce Hopkins (PJ LotR Gamling) and Bernard Hill (PJ LotR Theoden) * Christopher Tolkien and J.R.R. Tolkien aerograms * News and commentary on the upcoming Hobbit movie with del Toro * And much more. * Ending music by Glass Hammer - "Dwarf and Orc"

If people would like to suggest topics or ask questions for us to discuss, please feel free to do so. You can send email to middleearthradio at gmail dot com.

Hawke will also start asking people to hang out in the MERP chatroom starting at 9:30 PM Pacific Time each Sunday to suggest questions, even though we're not yet ready to broadcast the shows live.

You can listen to a broad selection of Tolkien-related music at Middle-earth Radio.

Okay, it's not exactly live. Hawke Robinson and I recorded our first episode of Middle-earth Talk Radio a couple of weeks ago and the editing on that show is now complete.

The inaugural episode is a little long and to be honest my voice strikes me as being a little more nasal than usual. Maybe that's the congestion I was struggling with or it could be that the way Hawke and I record slightly distorts my voice.

The main topic of discussion was The Children of Hurin, although we wandered across related topics, including The Silmarillion.

Tonight we recorded our second episode and we discussed Guillermo del Toro's recent disclosures about the upcoming Hobbit movie project, among other topics. BTW -- I mentioned that Beleg was left for dead in the story if Hurin -- I think that was an error. I wish I had time to look all this stuff up to check my facts, but I'm under a tight schedule.

I'm not sure when the second episode will be available but I'll post an announcement here. An interesting point came up after Hawke stopped recording. We got into a brief discussion of the Ancanar film project, an independent Tolkien-inspired film by Sam Balcomb and Rainfall Films (when Tolkien fans were first introduced to the the project, the company operated under a different name but has since rebranded as Rainfall Films).

I quickly looked up some of the people from the project, including Raiya Corsiglia, who is now directing movies, music videos, and commercials. If you watch her commercials demo reel, you'll catch some Tolkien references (and maybe some Harry Potterish elements, too).

Enjoy.