I'm in Denver from now through the week, working in one of the convention rehearsal rooms, and will try to regularly do some posts giving a flavor of the backstage scene.

As always on the eve of the convention, there's a fair amount of confusion, with thousands of volunteers trying to find out where they are supposed to be and how to get the credentials to get there. Security is pretty heavy; there was a two-hour line yesterday morning for access to the Pepsi Center (the main convention venue). Downtown Denver is saturated with police officers, many in riot gear (today is apparently the big day for demonstrations). Best line I've heard so far was from a coffee shop waitperson who said: "The SWAT teams all have scuba gear; guess that's in case there's trouble at the Aquarium."