The invasion was televised

As far back as I can remember I thought that joke about dreaming that one ate a giant marshmallow and waking to discover one's pillow consumed was pretty stupid. Not only because pillows taste nothing like marshmallows (don't ask how I know) and therefore the logic behind the joke falls flat, but because I saw a fairly solid line between what was happening outside the dream (i.e., in the so-called "real" world) and the content of a dream. Sure, dreaming about something could elicit some physiological reactions (talking in one's sleep, for example, or having an erotic dream and waking aroused), but it was a one-way street; the body was reacting to the dream, not the dream to what the body was experiencing.

Anyway, let's move on.

This morning, I was having a dream that took place in a field of trees, and involved people undoubtedly influenced by me having seen an episode of the John Adams mini-series on HBO. One of the people was referred to as George Washington I recall. So, at least on the surface the setting was the 18th century. At some point a helicopter appeared, hovering in the sky above the tree line. Even in the context of the dream I remember thinking it incongruous with what was going on.

When I awoke, the sound of a helicopter in the sky above the apartment was immediately discernible. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't wake me immediately, with as loud as it was. It certainly prevented me from returning to sleep and figuring out how the father of our country would tackle this flying contraption.

Turning on the TV, the nature of why the copters were hovering was revealed: a "landmark" building in Hollywood was engulfed in flames at the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine, and being less than two miles away put us under where the aerial shots of the firefighters battling the blaze were being taken. An empty nightclub had caught fire in the very early morning hours, and the two helicopter for the local Fox and CW affiliates (which have morning shows) had been covering it since dawn.

And thus the appearance of the helicopter in the dream was explained.

The veil between the two worlds is thinner than I thought. The pillow joke is still stupid, however.

~

Speaking of the fire: I did eventually get up and go outside and see some smoke mingled with the morning hazy clouds, and see the two helicopters (but by this point they'd moved to a different vantage point and were now a few miles to the east, and not directly overhead (and hence not as loud).

But by this point it was too late to try to go back to sleep.

Here's the thing: The story was not important enough for the local ABC, CBS, or NBC stations to interrupt their national broadcasts, but both the local channels (KTTV and KTLA) covered the story with the same intensity as the OJ Bronco chase; they did not go to commercial, they did not go to whatever pieces and guests they may have had scheduled.

Even after the fire was clearly pretty well under control, or at least when it wasn't changing, they kept showing pictures from the hovering helicopters of hoses shooting water on a smoke-covered building.

Even though there was no one in the building.

Even though the surrounding structures were not in significant danger of going up (at least by the time I was watching).

Even though the hosts and the reporters on the scene and in the copter had nothing new to say about what was happening, and grasped at anything to say to fill time.

Which would be all fine and dandy as far as I was concerned were it not for the fact that their obsequious coverage had gotten into my dream, and then woke me up long before I would have otherwise done so.

I know if the building in question had not been in the heart of historic Hollywood but in a less famous neighborhood, it would have gotten maybe two minutes of air time. But some place where the first few minutes of Ocean's Eleven were filmed surely deserves hours of continuous coverage. And obviously that deserves to interrupt my sleeping.

I gotta get out of this town.