Sam Donaldson appreciates the joys of a production truck and electrical backup.

If you’ve been paying attention you may have noticed a slight change in tone in my posts from a live blogging present tense to the past tense. That because right about at this moment in the program - BANG - no power in almost all of my battery-driven gear, which was nearly everything.

Despite an meticulously planned event, the logistics people neglected to do one important thing - provide outlets to writers on the field, or do a row of press seats directly off the field in the seats with power lines attached. The television camera you saw all around were drawing power pulled from inside the arena and were connected to satellite trucks outside. Everybody else? Completely at the mercy of the limitations of battery life in our various technological gadgetry. For me, the flat out worst thing could have happened, my Mac laptop went dead with a full charge after maybe 45 minutes tops. This from a computer that brags about 3 hours of battery life.

Apparently this happened to many people - press and otherwise. Some speculate that with 85,000 people, nearly all using some sort of electrical device, plus 12,000 members of the press plugged in to something, that there was a serious power drain happening. Maybe, maybe not, I just know that was the killer for me.

There were accommodations for writing press inside the arena - a way too small and completely full press filing center near the Broncos locker rooms, and some tables in the basement hallway that were reserved for Getty Images, Reuters, Fox News and the other wire services.

Unlike Pepsi Center, the press boxes at Invesco were in what are normally the sports writer booths next to the skyboxes. The problem was that it was accessible only by a single elevator that took too much time. and it was enclosed in glass. That was an option if you were okay just being and observer, but the real action, the real emotion and the people who could answer questions were down on the field. There was no way I was leaving that kind of excitement to sit in a booth to live blog - especially since so many people - 38 million by some reports - were watching on television.

I’m vain, but not so vain to imagine that people were going to switch off the TV and watch me follow it by blog. So every post beyond this point has the perspective of a few hours for all of it to sink in, which is probably better anyway.

Kudos to Canon - my camera outlasted every device. And as much as I hate it otherwise, my corporate Palm Treo held out all night as well. The JVC HD hard drive video camera died with 3 minutes to go in Barack’s speech. Three freaking minutes. Thanks for nothing, JVC.

All I have to say to Steve Jobs and the people at Apple is, I love your stuff, but Dude, stop with the phones and focus on the battery thing - NOW. I’d settle for solar power and a hand crank at this point.

Dudley Brooks organizes a delegate photo at the Denver Convention Center.

This morning before all the madness, Dudley Brooks, Ebony photo director, along with Kevin Chappell, senior editor of JET organized a rapidly arranged photo of African American delegates.

The problem was finding a place for them to shoot that would be central to everyone’s location, and then the bigger problem - finding the delegates, who were on a mission to buy t-shirts before they leave in the morning.

And of course, tickets and credentials are being peddled like crack on a street corner. One wrinkle for a number of press people and guests is that the credentials that got you into the various spaces and perimeters in the Pepsi Center apply to Invesco Field. Which sounds fine except that it’s a completely different arena with a whole different setup.

Those of us carrying CAMERA STAND passes for example, were hobbled greatly last night when the security crackdown stemming from Obama being in the building limited our mobility to a stand that was next to the podium, but 80% of that stand was out of the site lines of the speakers.

This time around, however, barring being a delegate, CAMERA STAND is platinum with everything else paling in comparison. We have direct sitelines on a platform right behind the first row of delegates in the Ohio and Illinois delegation, who have prime seating because of their significance in both the primary and general elections.

Looking like life-size Star Troopers, Denver cops present an intimidating and/or comic book-like presence

There’s been much talk among attendees of the DNC, and local Denverites about the extraordinary police presence. Most people agree that while preparedness is one thing, Denver security organizers have gone a bit too far in their show of strength.

Along 16th Street Mall, an outdoor shopping and entertainment district, lunch crowds at outdoor patios have been both alarmed and amused by police SUVs carrying heavily body-armored and armed swat teams six-astride patrolling the streets in a laughably intimidating fashion, often followed minutes later by dozens of mounted cops, then followed by a line of walking quick-response teams.

Beyond the show of numbers, people have been startled by the over-design of the tactical uniforms - all black get-ups replete with matching sky-trooper helmets, knee pads, shin guards, water packs, elbow pads and nylon gloves, giving the security force the appearance of something your 4 year-old plays with, rather than something to be taken seriously.

The clear consensus is that if there is trouble in Denver before the week ends, it will be because people are provoked by the security sideshow not comforted by it.

The perimeter around the Denver Pepsi Center.

Clean, clear streets with no stray trash and more importantly, no stray people are the order of the day in Denver. Before and after the Hillary speech a lone protester - more loony crank than activist - and giving the appearance of being homeless, chided the departing conventioners for their ignorance in supporting Democratic politicians.

Aside from that, any evidence of street living has been fundamentally eliminated not only from the Pepsi Center perimeter but for miles in either direction.

The tools of the new media trade:
Laptop.
Film editing, photo editing and file conversion software.
Video camera that takes still photos.
Digital still camera that takes video.
Wireless card.
PDA with e-mail, text and photo capability.
All the cords and memory cards that go with them.

All of it fits neatly and lightly into a backpack, allowing a writer to be director, producer, editor and publisher at a moment’s notice.

The problem? Batteries run out at the most inconvenient times and when one piece in the chain falls it can stop you dead in your tracks. So despite all the wonderful attempts by the DNC and its corporate sponsors to set up lovely work spaces with plenty of outlets and access, once you get up from that workspace you are subject to the whims of the people who make these technologies.

Will the laptop battery last two hours or three? Will the phone die before that big speech or after? If you can find only one open outlet but needs to charge three things, which do you choose?

If you’re blogging, by default the two things that always need power are the laptop and the camera. If you’re doing team coverage, the phone is the main link. If you’re shooting, of course you need the camera but what can you do with the photos without the laptop.

Every now and then it all makes you cry out for a typewriter and some White Out.

When you’re in a city like Denver, with big open skies and plenty of empty land between wherever you are and the rest of civilization, the last word you want to hear is “twister”. Still that was the weather that was being reported just about the time that Sunday’s parties were just starting to commence.

Some sporadic reports of damage, but thankfully no cows flying and nobody hurt. Party on, Denver.

And so it begins..

In this blog from the Democratic National Convention, we’ll be bring you up-to-date posts, photos and video from Denver in out attempt to put you here with us. It’s a relatively rare opportunity to be a part of history, and for those of you who can’t it to the Mile High City, this will be your informative and sometimes irreverent guide to exactly what happens at one of these events from minute to minute. What it looks like, what it feels like, who’s who, what’s what, a glossary of terms and what it all means in the scheme of things.

We won;t just be covering the politics, however. As you’ll see, most of what’s interesting happens outside of the planned activities - way outside. We’ll try to show you all of it.

Be sure to check out the rest of our Convention ‘08 coverage, with hourly reports from me (Eric Easter), daily slide shows from award winning photographer Dudley Brooks, daily Obama and Biden galleries from Ebony photographer Valerie Goodloe, reports from the floor from political reporter Del Walters and critical commentary from Brian Gilmore, Monroe Anderson and our man from inside Denver, DeAngelo Starnes.

In Chicago, senior editor Terry Glover and movie reviewer Sergio Mims will put their critical eyes to the artistic expression in music and video at this week’s convention activities.

In addition our European correspondents and filmmakers in Berlin, Paris and London will try to interpret how the rest of the world is taking this exciting week of hype and democracy. Stay with us and come back often to EbonyJet.com to see what’s new.

Then next week, look for editor Kevin Chappell’s wrap-up report in Monday’s JET magazine.