Companion Podcasats

In addition to the great historcal information available on the web in text, pdf and mp3 format, there is also a great treasure trove in information on working the Program.

These are all personal viewpoints, but what else to do we have to offer?

So, in addition to the Big Book 101 / Sunday Night Live from the Healing Place in Raleigh NC, there will be a How it Works podcast with commentaries from many sources on spirituality, inventory, sponsorship and similar topics.

I seem to be an alcoholic, working in creative fits of energy and then I go live life and deal with those problesm for a while.

Anonymous Review joins FeedBurner

The podcast will get some expaanded notice through Google's "FeedBurner" service.

Since there have been no donations through the website donation button, I am considering click-banners to try to raise some money to pay for the online hosting costs - and some of the equipment and sotware I've had to buy to do the show.  Still debating that, but it is an avenue open to me.

True and Not Quite True yet

Episode #6 is up and the website is undergoing a revision.  All true.

#7 is almost finished and will be posted next week.  Also True.

The Apple iTunes feed problem being solved - not true.  Sigh.  iTunes shows the podcst when you subscribe through feed://radiojoe.podbus.com/pcar or at the arcives.org site at
http://www.archive.org/details/Anonymous_Review_Podcast


But the secrets of iTunes RSS continue to elude me.  I can either stop and focus on that one source, or I can plug away, keep at the shows and work on the RSS problem as I can.


Progress, not perection. 

A Second Podcast

For several years a few of the local AAs have been going up to the Healing Place, a local recovery program or homeless alcoholic and addicted men (and women, at a different campus). 

We have used these session to give the guys an introduction to the Big Book - where it came from, why we use it and how to study (or at least one or two options on how to study).

At the suggestion of one of the former staff members, who was back as a client after a relapse, about 20 of those sessions have been recorded and I am in the process of extracting the bits that address speciic topics.

For example, one topic would be where the name "Alcoholics Anonymous" came from; another might be the history of the Oxord Groups; another section would cover the 400 multilith copies sent out in January 1939 and their impact on the edited version of the manuscript.

The History of Alcoholics Anonymous is focused to the creation of the Bick Book and the spiritual Program it explains. 

The new podcast will be selected sections of different sessions, rather than making people wade through 20 hours of free form discussion.

More will be announced here as the new downloads are edited and uploaded.

Groovy

I have been thinking about dropping the hosting service or ANONYMOUS REVIEW.  They have not responded to several requests for inormation or help with my RSS.

So ... I found out Archive.org hosts Creative Commons podcasts for free. 

Free sounds good.

You can get the most recent Anonymous Reviews through: http://www.archive.org/details/Anonymous_Review_Podcast

And still free.

Tweaks

Just finished tweaking the home pages.  There is a page for Podcast #7, but it won't be up for a few days. Added a Guestbook/Feedback page. 

And a link to this Blog.  That might mean I'll get to announce things here.  And that means another RSS, but for a blog it is MUCH easier.

I've checked the RSS a few times and am really pleased to see it working.

Things are finally moving along - pod-wise.

My Favorite Two

Two sites have been instrumental in exploring the depth and history of Recovery, and I recommen them very highly.

For audio recordings:
XA-Speakers

For historical documentation:
Silkworth Net

These two sites have provided 90% PLUS of my research over the past year.  Superb.

FIANLLY!!

The mystery of iTunes access has been solved. A wonderful program called Feeder solved the problem in a single session with an automated RSS authoring session.

I uploaded the new RSS to the website and the podcast is now available from iTunes, through podcast aggregators (such as Juice) and through a browser (you can listen in the browser or use the browser to download the MP3 file of eaach episode).

The feed is feed://radiojoe.podbus.com/pcar and that is a wonder to behold.

I hope to get enough donations to pay for my copy of Feeder.  Since the total donations have totalled zero, that will be an ineresting thing to watch.

But six episodes of ANONYMOUS REVIEW are up and ready for you to enjoy.

Comments are invited.

Six Up

Episode six just went up, but I cannot get the RSS to work with iTunes. Bleh.

But you can get the podcast through your browser at http://radiojoe.podbus.com/pcar/

I'd love to hear some feedback. 

And not the electronic kind.

bleh - RSS Help, please?

Program #5 is ready to go up and a second podcast (Big Book Intro) will be available shortly).

But I still have not been able to get the iTunes section of the RSS (xml) document to work.  I do have a lot of thigns going on in my life, so it might be due to my energy being drained by other things.

The RSS works for web download and with JUICE aggregator, but not iTunes.

But I'd like to get the iTuness part up. 

A little help?

Ceasing to Exist

According to BlogSpot, I no longer exist.  The fact I could argue the point seems to prove that I do, indeed, exist.

But I couldn't call on many people who follow the blog to testify.

I haven't been able to log into my blog until today.  Two more podcasts were posted, and two of those are not coming through the iTune podcast  - something is wrong with my XML coding.

Show #3 - Lois Wilson speaks on the early days of AA.

Show #4 - Jim Burwell talks about his memories on the development of the Big Book.

These shows can be accessed through the main webpage / podcast link at http://www.anonymousreview.org

Show #5 will contain my favorite talk by Bill Wilson giving his memories of the Big Book and Early AA. He does a lot to 'humanize' himself and Dr. Bob - particularly on claims as to their "saintliness."  Great fun.

I may change Blogging service, but will post the new link here.

Back into the salt mines

I've been out of the podcast production business for about three months - going on four. Sorry about that -- family drama and an 82 year old father with some decisions that may ruin or end his life. He's an alcoholic, too -- he says so and has 47 years so far.  He is now in a skilled nursing facility with 24 hour IV and a knee replacement that is not only not working, but threatening amputation...

So my podcast has not had top priority.

However, I take my laptop with me to the hospital and have staged several shows.  I will upload a bunch at once, so don't be surprised if your RSS suddenly kicks in.

I have one show with Jim Burwell discussing his memories of the Big Book and its origins.

Another wonderful talk from Sam Shoemaker, who rant the Calvary Mission where Bill used to take his unwilling drunks. Sam was Bill's spiritual advisor and is very much Bill's opposite.  Bill is a slow-talking, laconic and deliberate speaker; Sam is a fast talkin' Yankee.  I love what he had to say.

Lois Wilson recorded a talk in Huntington West Virginia that has a lot of history and memories -- that will be a separate show.

I have been trying to clean up one of the talks I've found from Ebby Thatcher, but they are so degraded I can't get them to even the low standards of a podcast -- much less a professional talk.

There are other pioneers I plan to up up as podcasts in the near future, and if I can get permission there is a wonderful 3 hour presentation of the history of AA through the Oxford Groups I would like to get out there.

There are some other bits I plan to tack on - including a drunks version of the 12-Days of Christmas, some comedy routines and shorts with poetry and facts that may be new to you.

But I think I have my priorities right ... first sobriety, then the life-and-death thing with my dad, then the podcast.

Give me a couple more days.

Most of my material has come from the good folks at http://www.xa-speakers.org, who offer great recordings of program speakers, and not just AA.  Alanon and NA are also represented.  I cannot recommend these people enough.

--

You can't lead where you haven't been.
You can't teach what you haven't learned.
You can't be what you are not.
And you damn sure can't give what you ain't got!

---------
Joe A.