Having watched Star Wars (wikipedia page) for my birthday at the ripe age of 7, it being my first time in a cinema, I will never forget the moment when the Imperial StarDestroyer seemed to swallow the theatre and a wide eyed kid’s life was changed forever, as were so many others.

From that day forth, I was a Star Wars fan, I had dozens of character models, an X-wing fighter, a dissappointing Star Destroyer and numerous other Lucas merchandise pieces. By the time I discovered girls, I had seen Star Wars over 350 times and although other interests took favour, I still nurtured a love for all things Rebel Alliance and a natural lack of trust for Imperial Stormtroopers and the Dark Side.

However it was only recently that I was made aware of Ralph McQuarrie and his influence and style that formed much of the concepts, that so many love today.

Ralph McQuarrie was Born on June 13, 1929 with an artistic streak in the family he studied art and became a technical illustrator at Boeing illustrating designs for air and spacecraft. His animated work was used by NASA and CBS news for the coverage of the Apollo lunar missions.

Between 1965 and 1975 McQuarrie worked as a freelance artist in film and television. He was hired by George Lucas to illustrate the concept of Star Wars to Twentieth-Century Fox. McQuarrie supplied images of R2-D2 and C-3PO , Stormtroopers, the Death Star, Darth Vader and Lightsabers. It worked and McQuarrie worked on with the project both pre and during production. Full Biography here.

The artwork is simply amazing, even if you weren’t a fan of the Film series or even a Sci-Fi buff. Such a seminal pieced of film history and the name of Ralph McQuarrie is heard so little.

A Google image search of ‘Ralph Mcquarrie’ will show many of the great masterpieces but it’s worth trawling some of the fan sites and reading a little on the background and influence McQuarrie had on the films as whole. It also turns up some of the gems of unknowns, like the fact that Luke Skywalker was originally Luke Starkiller and a girl!

Here is a great set shown on Michael Heilemann’s Flikr account. And some early Star Wars figures by Sillof based on some of the pre-final script concepts. Dreams and Vision Press publish a book of Ralph McQuarries work, for the avid fan.

Think like a kid again.

On an impromptu shopping stop, my better half picks me up some pears from Tesco’s, I have a penchant for a nice pair! When it comes to the weekly shop we have recently made proactive choices to read labels and buy produce that is as local as possible. However our local Sainsbury’s has had a poor run on pears, mostly battered and ruined or just non-existent.

I was surprised to see the packaging these pairs were in, only four pears, house in a polystyrene tray with a hard plastic moulded lid, wrapped in cellophane and labelled. It was more the style of a kids toy packaging than fruit. The missus agreed it was poor but as we hadn’t found any non-battered pears recently, these looked in good shape. The dismay at the packaging was only irritated when I spotted that these were from New Zealand!

Had these pears been packaged in NZ and travelled in their Samsonite packaging all the way to the UK, if so, the space required for a consignment of pears must be huge, as opposed to loose pears. Hard to believe this would be the case. Which meant that the pears had travelled half way round the planet, remaining intact and then packaged in their armour plating, for what? The trip to the supermarket? Sitting on the shelves? If the pear can be delivered over 11,000 miles without harm, why can these be trusted to sit on a shelve or travel 40 miles to a store?

The other question is clearly the issue of distance, is there nowhere closer to obtain a pear from? On Saturday I browsed the pears at Sainsbury’s, all were from New Zealand or South Africa! I appreciate the both these countries have excellent climates for fruit, but surely the consumer can start to rely on seasonal fruit more often and accept that there are times when certain fruit isn’t readily available. Or the supermarket buyers can source fruit from closer regions.

Same region sourcing, considerate or no packaging, seasonal supplying, is it that hard, what’s the worst outcome? Prices go up slightly to cover damaged units/sustainable packaging, consumers in the UK can’t make pear crumble in March? Come on supermarkets, show some inspiration, and consumers, your choice can drive the market, donate some nectar points to some smart choices.

Think local and long term.

Sounds stupid, I know, but after seeing an advert yesterday for a ‘Sony Portable Sat-Nav’ I couldn’t help but run ‘portable Sat Nav’ through Google. Amazed to find so many results. When will suppliers start advertising desktop PC’s with buit-in GPS, just requiring single start-up calibration?

Think about it…