Archive: March 4th, 2012

Ralph McQuarrie died yesterday at the age of 82. His pre-production paintings shaped the Star Wars films …and the Star Wars films shaped me.

His work adorned my bedroom wall when I was growing up—I remember this Return Of The Jedi poster in particular.

His sweeping vistas populated with small figures dwarfed by their otherworldly surroundings helped to establish the Star Wars universe as something that existed beyond the confines of the films. George Lucas made the movies …but Ralph McQuarrie shaped the mythology.

His passing is being marked elsewhere on the web:

• Gavin Rothery’s blog,
• Ain’t It Cool News,
• Binary Bonsai and
• The Star Wars website.

On our way back from New Zealand, Jessica and I stopped off in Sydney for a day. That same evening, the “What Do You Know?” event was going on—a series of five minute lightning talks from Sydney’s finest web geeks.

Maxine asked me if I could do a turn so I put together a quick spiel called Five Things I Learned from the Internet. Those five things are:

1. How to wrap headphone cables in a tangle-free way.
2. How to fold a T-shirt in seconds.
3. How to tie shoelaces correctly (thanks, Adam).
4. How to eat a cupcake (thanks, Tara).
5. How to peel a banana (thanks, Kyle) with a bonus lesson on the bananus.

At least one of those things will blow your mind. Pwshoo!