"Why don't you tell your dreams to me? Fantasy will set you free."

We watched Sahara again over the weekend and I took great delight in listening to one of my favourite scenes – the moment when Dirk and Al rebuild a wrecked airplane into a desert wind surfer. Why do I enjoy listening to this scene so much? Well it just happens to use one of my favourite songs, Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf.

When Shauna and I went on our honeymoon in Las Vegas we had a rather unfortunate experience, to say the least. I was woken up at about 4:00am on our second day there by the sound of Shauna screaming, laying on the bathroom floor. I immediately called 911 (there’s a story there, but I’ll let Shauna tell you about it) and we soon found ourselves in an ambulance on our way to the hospital. I ended up riding shotgun in the ambulance and as the driver peeled out onto the street he turned up the radio. I’m not sure if that was to drown out Shauna’s screams or if it was meant to calm me. Strangely, it had both effects, to some degree. While I was 90% terrified about what was happening to Shauna, I was 10% exhilarated to be riding fast in an ambulance with the radio turned up, blasting none other than Magic Carpet Ride – now immortalized as ‘our song’.

Star Trek: First Contact, Apollo 13 and Reservoir Dogs are just a few of the other terrific movies that have used this fantastic song. And every time I hear it, it brings a smile to face.

Every time Shauna hears it I think she grimaces in pain. Turns out she had a kidney stone. For which they gave her lots of nasty drugs, sending her on her own magic carpet ride.