From the random file

Though perhaps it’s unwise to illuminate the inner workings of a trucking journalist’s mind, I’m going to jump off that proverbial cliff anyways and reveal how a single item – in this case a press release – can spark a long and rather “random” connection of different things.

Sean Kilcarr 1

March 11, 2015

3 min read

Fleetowner Com Sites Fleetowner com Files Uploads 2015 03 Epic2

The tinder in today’s case is what at first glance looked to be a standard press kit hawking the new EpicVue satellite TV service for truckers that arrived via the U.S. Postal Service the other day.

But surprise, surprise: said press kit instead turned out to be a compact video player loaded with digital clips extolling the virtues of this new in-cab entertainment service for company drivers.

By the by, the full EpicVue package per truck includes the following: an EpicVue satellite dome antenna; digital video recorder (DVR) with dual-tuner receiver & remote; 24 in. flat screen HDTV; permanent and temporary mounts; easy mount off-air antenna.

Yet the story doesn’t end there – not even close. Because the word “television” sparked the recollection of a recent (and quite hilarious) ESPN commercial whereby two NASCAR haulers race each other from one venue to another.

Of course, when you watch that ESPN clip you can’t help but notice it’s set to the famous Jerry Reed song “East Bound & Down” written for the 1977 cinematic classic Smokey & The Bandit.

Thus that needs to be spooled up on the YouTube channel:

And ending up at the topic of trucking music (“I’ll take ‘big rigs’ for two hundred, Alex”) brings to mind a rarely-known and highly-unusual paean to interstellar travel by Deep Purple entitled “Space Truckin’” off their Machine Head album:

That of course sparks another outer space-trucking connection: did you know that famed movie director James Cameron once drove trucks for a living? In fact he quit driving trucks after seeing Star Wars in 1977 (the same year the aforementioned Smokey & The Bandit hit the big screen) first making his mark as a special effects wiz before hitting the jackpot with the sci-fi epic The Terminator in 1984 – with a new version of that classic film dubbed Terminator Genisys set to be released this year:

Which of course brings us back to the wonders of satellite TV, as that medium allows movie junkies like myself to tap into many such sci-fi classics due to the extinction of video rental stores; classics such as Space Truckers:

All in a day’s work.