A really special time at Monterey
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 12:36AM 
I had a wonderful time at the Naval Postgraduate School, speaking there as part of the Secretary of Navy Lecture Series.
Flew much of Monday to get there--all American. Small plane to Ohare, then biggie to LA, then Eagle to Monterey. Got there around 5pm, picked up by Navy enlisted and we hit a Chinese takeout before my hotel--that historic old Del Monte place last rebuilt during Prohibition (many stories there, I am told). Big suite of rooms, all with, like, 14-foot ceilings. Watched MNF and yoga'd the kinks out of my back.
Tuesday up to breakfast in basement cafeteria (pretty good), then day of intense writing in the room, broken up by a long interview with Bill Powell of Time on a piece he's working on WRT China. Finished up writing, worked the brief some (to include working in some of the Israel-strikes-Iran scenario stuff from a past Wikistrat drill). Picked up by female USN officer and we walk over to the gigantic auditorium they've got. I mean . . . BIIG! Like a 1,000 seater with high galleries left and right and a wide and very deep main section with easy to walk up steps (which I did a lot on both aisles, as the stage was too cramped and distant and I like getting up in people's faces so they can really see me). Projector was solid, with a gorgeous rendering of blues, which works for my stuff. Sound on the lavalier was spectacularly crisp, which I love, because the more nuanced the sound, the more you can modulate and work your voice--from everything short of stage whispers to serious booms. Integrated sound on Mac was good too--very clean. Only catch? I go up about 30 yards on either side and I risked losing the RF clicker, so I had to watch that a bit and adjust.
BTW, I would love a shot of that auditorium, if anyone has got one.
Anyway, after AV check, whisked to meet retired 3-star Dan Oliver, who I did remember from the 90s at CNA or somewhere in my Naval War College travels. We had nice chat in his office. He told me the students nominate the speaker series and then there's this big drill of debating the choices and voting on them in some manner. They had tried to get me a couple years back, but we couldn't swing it. This year worked, although we failed to make a SF (Pacific Club?) invite happen on the same trip, which was too bad, because it is a haul. But real point: you don't come unless you're a strong student choice.
After the chat, my nominator escorted me over to the haul and then intro'd me while I miked up in back of theater, walking all the way down to the floor in front of the stage so I could click my book images while he recited them.
Then I plunged in. Supposed to talk 60 and went more like 90-95, but didn't lose anybody. Place was about 80% full, so say 800. Military officers from all over world (more on that in second).
I started pretty well--a bit funnier than usual off the bat, but what really got me going was the huge space, the big crowd and their strong responsiveness. This was one of those audiences that you live for--the one that reminds you why you do this, why this career matters to you, and what your ultimate impact is.
I did only 30 "white" slides (white backgrounds--my substantive ones), so 30 in 90 showed I was really luxuriating in the material (norm is 2 mins per white slide), so I was pulling out every good line in the warehouse because this was a really fun, responsive, engaged, quick-to-laugh-hard audience. And because it was military and global, I could be my usual politically incorrect self--offending 360 degrees--and keep them with me throughout, because that military sense of humor, well, it's a hard one to explain. While leaning to the conservative side, these people have seen the world like nobody else in America (ditto for the foreign officers relative to their own populations), so their ability to laugh at things is really a lot more flexible than your average US crowd, and I love to cross lines.
Anyway, it was a memorable 90 for me. I was really grooving in that unconscious way I get when I'm firing on all cylinders and birthing 1-2 or more keepers (which I never write down; I simply remember when they're good) over the show. It truly is my drug of choice.
After I finished, we did probably 25 minutes of questions from the audience, getting us to about five pm (I started at 3pm). Then a student leader gives me the ceremonial mug (more on that) and the command coin (very cool with engraving of old Del Monte hotel on one side and shield of school on other).
After the cavernous room clears, I go maybe another solid hour doing Q&A with those who want more (starts with about 30 and gets down to 4-5). Here's the cool bit: I talk about the south-v-north Sudan vote during the brief (on tip of my tongue because I made the upcoming vote one of my "Six Degrees of Integration" small-entries in the sample Wikistrat "CoreGap" weekly that we'll debut--for free--next Monday). So during the small group Q&A/signings, this African officer in green comes up and asks me a follow-on on the Sudan vote. I notice the letters on his shoulder board: SPLA, as in Sudan People's Liberation Army, or the South's legacy force from the long civil war, now clearly set to step into role as military of soon-to-be independent South Sudan--with this guy already studying at the Naval Postgrad School!). That was a head-turner all right.
Of those 4-5, 3 are set to take me downstairs for drinks (to christen the mug) at the Trident student bar (pictured above, and notice all the pale mugs hanging from ceiling). Turns out you get a mug as student, sign it on bottom, and then it's kept on the ceiling for you for your entire stint--taken down when you come in for your use and put back up til the next time, using these funky wooden sticks with basket-like tops. I put my mug aside and had a nice Grey Goose martini instead. I sat with my two hosts (faculty) and my nominating student and we shucked peanuts and had ours drinks for about an hour. Then another hour of talk over dinner. Then they split and a crew of about 8 Civil Affairs officers descend, including one who knows my stuff forwards and backwards and has briefed it during SysAdmin stints basically everywhere the US mil has gone over the past 15 years (late Balkans forward). We smoked a few cigarettes and they drank beers out of their mugs while I went non-alcoholic the rest of the night (I went with seltzer after the martini, cause I'm battling a broken eardrum on the right that's frequently infected--I will dispense with a quick repair of my 30-year-old eardrum grafting at UW-Madison with a revision tympanoplasty just before Xmas with my beloved ENT surgeon here). That went from about 7pm to 1030. I signed many of the mugs and the maven's T-shirt.
The discussion with these guys and one gal was just amazing--the kind of feedback somebody like me needs to hear every six months or so to keep up the spirits and the drive. Also a huge data dump on SysAdmin experiences (Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan) and some serious talk about how to get my stuff more widely distributed (where I brought up the emerging Wikistrat model), so hopefully we get something going there down the road, because I always love interacting with the CA crowd. They are my tribe within the military, both within the Army and Marines proper and inside the SOF community. Again, it just revitalizes to spend time with them, so I went as late as I could go, knowing I was flying 0-dark-30 in the ayem.
And yes, after talking heavily from about 2:00 til 10:30, with one drink and three cigs, my throat was pretty damn sore.
Flights back sucked, but I worked a lot anyway. Monterey puddle-jumper had mechanical, so paid cab ride to SFO, which was pretty as rides go. Then San Fran (leaving the World Series behind!) to Dallas, where I'm talking to Steve DeAngelis at 8pm local and he's like, "I'm on this plane getting set to leave Dallas!" (some of Enterra's medical work) and I'm like, "I'm inside the terminal! Wave back at me!" Total accident, of course, but weird. I would have freaked if I'd bumped into him accidentally in the head or something. That would have been so trippy.
Late flight to Indy from Dallas gets me home after midnight. I write to chill a bit. Read "John Adams" the last leg (so very good).
One last reminder to me: this CA guy who knew my stuff forwards and backwards, was going on about all his favorite books and he mentions this fabulous "Ruling by Waves" and after I hear about it for 10 minutes, I'm sending myself an email on my Android so I don't forget. I say, "Who's the author?" and it's an old Harvard classmate, Debora Spar, now a college president at a big liberal arts icon out east. I was really ashamed I didn't know of the book, because I always liked Debora a ton back then (very collegial in a very competitive environment and sharp as tack) and I was just stunned I missed hearing about this book, which works so well with my own stuff.
So I promise now to get it and read it and probably write something on it, because it sounds right up my frontier-integrating ally. Like my books, it seems to be read in the CA community.
Anyway, I gotta crash.
Reader Comments (5)
Sounds like a great time (except for the butts...) Speaking of 'good reads', I started the Aubrey/Maturin cycle for the, I dunno, 5th time.
Have you thought about a separate blog thread on 'good books I've read'? You've done a lot of movies.
dave
http://thomaspmbarnett.squarespace.com/
globlogization/category/deep-reads
14 books listed
Sir, I will get you a picture of the NPS auditorium. Please send me your e-mail of preference.
V/R,
Maj Frye
Ruling the Waves looks complementary to Howard Bloom's The Genius of the Beast
Sir, enjoyed you coming out immensely. Thanks again and I look forward to catching up with your books. Changed a lot of my views very quickly and can't wait to throw it at several people I speak with on these matters. Take care.