June 9. 2009 by admin.

ANONYMOUS REVIEW will be on hiatus until some questions can be answered. Above all, what is the purpose of the podcast … we’ve had a couple dozen AA history speakers and some newer material on the functioning of the program, but in what direction should Volume 3 go.

As it stands, I will start doing a more heavily produced podcast like a regular documentary.  Not just raw recording, but discussions on aspects of AA History and the process of 12-Step Recovery using sound clips from previous recording that address the topics for that show.But at the same time VIRTUAL SPEAKER MEETING will not only continue, but will try to meet a goal of one speaker per week.  The VSM podcasts are much easier to produce and really seem to fill a need.

Comments are, of course, welcome … but very few people have written.  So far the combined podcasts have recevied a total of three (3) emails.  That is easily cured by sharing your comments with me. 

Posted in Virtual Speaker Meeting, The Podcast, Early AA | Print | 1 Comment »

May 20. 2009 by admin.

This week marks the deadline for moving our feed to a different XML, and I haven’t really be at work on that - other things need to be done, too. The new feed means you will have to update your reader (iTunes or Juice). And the previous shows remain available through Archive.org. Next Anonymous Review Podcast - Bill Wilson speaking in Ft. Worth, TX in 1954. 

 Next Virtual Speaker Meeting - One of my favorite speakers, Kelvin D. 

Posted in Virtual Speaker Meeting, The Podcast, Personalities, Early AA, Blogroll | Print | No Comments »

January 17. 2009 by admin.

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

Or so I’ve been told.

I try not to have plans, but preferences and adjust according to the real world.

For the immediate future I have decided that I will include on Bill Wilson talk per month - we have quite a few available, so we can get through 2009.  I should make that an average - I have a two part Legacies talk, but you get the idea.

I will go back to individual speakers from Early AA for a bit - Ethyl M., Marty Mann, Ernie G, Rolle H, Barry L are in the warm up circle, and there are a few multi-prestentations lurking nearby. I particularly want to share the Tom I / Don P “Steps and Service” series, but the fellowship has provided quite a few events and series talks.  The list of podcasts for the next few months is shaping up.

I want to say something about XA-speakers.org, the source of most of our talks. I had not heard of them until a friend and I went up to Virginia to pick up some boxes that were in from California, and he played CDs burned from the site all the way up and all the way back - it was really great.

My friend is back out there - I hope he makes it back. I now listen to speakers the way most people listen to music. At home, while working, in the car … recovery audio as atmosphere.  XA-speakers.org is deserving of your support and could become addictive. As with other instinct, our compulsions can have a positive use, too.

Despite the number of downloads and visits to the site, we are still very slim on responses, so please feel free to send your comments to the Editor.

Posted in The Podcast, Steps, Service, Early AA, Blogroll | Print | 1 Comment »

January 11. 2009 by admin.

It’s an old concept - “husbanding resource.” In the more MBA era we call it getting more bang for your buck.

Even tho it is not expensive to do the podast, I have to keep the main server going and I have to follow the restrictions of the free podcast hosting service that allows us limited space and networking.

A really cool organization called “Archive.org” allows the old shows to go up on their public server and observes the Creative Commons license under which the shows are published. Taking the shows off my server clears room for new productions, including the new Virtual Speaker Meeting (#4 is up, by the way).

Volume One Numbers 1-6 (Complete) on Archive.org

Volume Two, Numbers 1-10, on Archive.org

 You can link the entire archive to your sites with the ‘embed’ command under each jukebox.

I think it is very cool.

Does anyone say ‘cool’ any more?

Posted in The Podcast, Early AA | Print | No Comments »

January 4. 2009 by admin.

And knock them down.

I just posted programs #14, 15 and 16 (Volume 2 Numbers 8, 9 and 10) with Jay S. and his excellent “How AA Really Started.”  It is just over 3 three hours long and I have chosen to podcast it as three episodes.

The 3rd Virtual Speaker Meeting is up with Sandy B, from Tampa, FL giving one of his high powered talks.

The Newsletter is getting some response and subscribers, which is always nice. You, too, could be an Anonymous Review News subscriber - for free, of course - by going to the sign-up form.

And I’m cointinuing work on the first of a series of disks.  I think I will make them available as an eBay item. There is no mass production involved, just the very low-tech guy sitting at his computer, printing out lables, applying the labels, sticking them in envelopes and sending them out.  I’m think $3, including shipping.  Not trying to be greedy, but I’m trying to getthe hosting above the “free” account I’m using now - and they want the year up front.

But so far it isn’t broken, so I don’t have to fix it.

I appreciate the letters that have started to come in - it is nice to know someone is listening.

Trudge, trudge, trudge … skip, sprint, poke, trudge, trudge, trudge.

Posted in Oxford Groups, Virtual Speaker Meeting, BB History, Early AA | Print | 1 Comment »

January 1. 2009 by admin.

While I still want to feature the voices of the original people in AA history, I also want to carry series of speakers from workshops and events.

And the first multi-part podcast for Anonymous Review will be Jay S. and his presentation of “How AA Really Started” with detailed information on the Oxford Groups and their founder, Frank Buchman.  The series will be listed as three separate podcasts, for size consideration, but it will v2#8, v2#9 and v2#10.

And I have three individual personalities to follow those.

But for now - three hours on the history of the Oxford Groups by Jay S.  :o)

Posted in Oxford Groups, The Podcast, Early AA, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

November 27. 2008 by admin.

Not really a Christmas gift, but I decided to post two shows at once.  I’m not quite up to doing one every two weeks, but more than one a month is not too bad. Two Shows:(NOT) BILL THE NIGHT DR BOB DIED (Volume 2, Number 4, Issue 10) For many years a tape/CD has been circulating that says it is Bill Wilson speaking on the night Dr. Bob died. Sadly, that is not true.The presentation was a dramatic, one-man show, conceived by a member of the program and intended to capture the interest of inmates at the prisons visited in his service work.  His name is Bill M and he never represented this as Bill W.  He does not impersonate Bill’s voice (Bill Wilson was clearly from New England and Bill M is more like the Dead End Kids) and it was not his fault that someone decided to put a false label onto his work.Bill M says that he visited prisons for years and both he and the prisoners got tired of him telling his same story all the time.  So, Bill M. says, he pulled together the script from Bill’s Story in the Big Book, AA Comes of Age, Pass it On and other scraps he came across.  He wanted a dramatic setting to keep the audience interested and receptive. To be honest, I was not going to share this recording after I found out it not our Bill.  But I loved the tape when I thought it was Bill W., it carrys a good message and when you realize it was a one-man show, Bill M. did a heck of a good job. The play was called “Moments” and we present the performance of “Bill Wilson on the Day Dr. Bob Died,” written and performed by Bill M., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. BILL D.  (AA # 3) (Volume 2, Number 5)  This is a 1950 talk by Bill D., “The man in the bed” from the AA 12th Step painting, and the third person to get sober with what was to become “AA.” It is an old recoding and has been processed as much as possible to make the words clearer, but not the high quality we would have liked.

Posted in Personalities, Early AA | Print | No Comments »

November 12. 2008 by admin.

This episode we offer the full speech by Dr. Bob Smith on July 3, 1950 at the first AA International Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.I think Bob knew it was his last talk.  As a doctor he had no illusions about the cancer that tortured him, and no unrealistic expectations for the prognosis.This talk has frequently been quoted, but this is the whole Magilla.  Enjoy.

Posted in Personalities, Service, BB History, Early AA | Print | No Comments »

October 13. 2008 by admin.

(Volume 2, Number 2, Issue 8) For the past several months I have been tweaking two recordings and managed to get something halfway listenable. Like I say on the podcast, people recording in the 1940s or 1950s didn’t tknow that they were going to be in a podcast of the 21st Century. The quality of the recordings is wildly variable.  <p>Some recordings were made on old home wax disks, or wire recorders, or primitive tape recorders.  Some were actually issued on LP disks and fairly well produced.These tapes were poor from the beginning. But the speaker is important enough to warrant the annoyance of poor sound. Tonight’s speaker is Ebby Thatcher, the man who brought the message to Bill Wilson.Two talks from Ebby, 1955 and 1961.After those, a real treat.  The author has given permisison for me to use his poem “Drunks” on this show.  Jack McC is a poet with his home page at Stand Up Poet and you might want to check out buying his CD or seeing him when he visits different locations around the country.This is the longest single podcast I have done to date, but I think this podcast has sufficient meat to justify the extra length.

Posted in Personalities, Early AA | Print | No Comments »