E3 2007: The Night the Lights Went Out in Santa Monica

It just gets more and more bizarre. I'm halfway through wondering how, if the air conditioning at the Le Merigot hotel was having such a hard time keeping up with the demands of two dozen or so Xboxen, and the accumulated body heat of a hundred or so journalists and exhibitors in the EA suite, the poor, little city of Santa Monica is dealing with the sum total of E3's power demands ... when the power goes out.

We've been without power for about six hours now. The fact that I'm still writing (and posting) is due only to the stored charge of my laptop battery (which is rapidly dwindling) and the kindness of the (not) stranger who loaned me a wireless broadband card.

I feel like a renegade blogger, holed up in a New Orleans office tower with a can of diesel fuel, a generator and a shotgun, waiting for the arrival of FEMA.

The local power company says "don't get your hopes up" when quizzed about the ETA of the sweet, sweet juice, and the folks manning the desk at the hotel can do little more than hand out flashlights and try not to be mean. It's the first day of the new E3 and so far, in just about every way, it's gone about as poorly as it could have.

I'll be putting my full thoughts on the event together in a day or so, but for now I say this to the ESA: I hope you have a Plan B.