Recap: "Where Have You Been?"

Last night I appeared in Jeff Stark's Where Have You Been? show, a sort of slideshow and panel discussion in which three guests discuss their recent travels.

I was there to talk about my three-week tour entertaining the troops in the Middle East on an Armed Forces Entertainment comedy tour.

The show took place in the progressive, collectively-owned Bluestockings Bookstore, but luckily no one shouted anything about blood for oil (or tried to shame me into veganism).

Here are the slides that were part of my presentation, with a couple extras that didn't quite fit into the show. Some of these will look familiar to regular blog readers:

This airport looked "foreign," in a way, but also had
not only a Starbucks, but a Claire's (the little-girl jewelry store).

In the Kuwaiti airport.

Also in the Kuwaiti airport. Like I'd never left New York.

A typical hotel breakfast -- foul mudamas, a comfort food made
of mashed or heavily cooked beans, falafel, hard-boiled egg.

Why I was there.

This Starbucks is in a trailer in the middle
of a tent city in a 125-degree desert.

Performing on an outdoor stage in Kuwait.

Signing autographs in the USO tent.

I have a lot of photos that look just like this, but
I thought one with lady soldiers was more interesting.

Comedians trying a shooting simulation. Or, as Jeff Stark said,
"Obligatory girls-with-guns photo." Fortunately for the state
of the world, the shooting simulations actually also test ethics
and procedures; if you shoot an unarmed civilian, the "game" ends,
and the legend "DEFEND YOUR ACTIONS" appears across the screen,
at which point you must explain yourself to an actual,
flesh-and-blood superior officer.

The Wall of Death, where Saddam lined up and executed Kuwaiti sailors.

Doing a show in the hangar on the USS Enterprise. Planes continually landed on the level just above us.

Another view of the crowd.

On a helicopter traveling from the USS Enterprise to the USS
Gettysburg, both a couple hundred miles into the Persian Gulf.

The view from the side of the helicopter, which flew with
its door open the entire way.

I took this photo inside the helicopter. I sometimes have
a really immature sense of humor.

On the base in Djibouti. Living in a shipping container is actually
a great privilege; the entry-level accommodation is just a tent.

In a souvenir shop in Bahrain. In such souvenir shops, I noted a shocking quantity of Christmas kitsch: ornaments, Santa figurines, a Christmas poem written in calligraphy on a slice of a log, even a cross-stitched Christmas stocking. Apparently, the locals find these items to be exotic Westernalia. One of the log mobiles, like the one pictured, included the misquoted platitudes: "A penny saved is a penny gained" and "An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of learning."