Behind the scenes of the Sgt. Pepper album cover

Ever wonder who all those people were on the famous cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?

Yep, these people.

Eddie Deezen offers some background information about the album cover; read some below and continue over at Neatorama:

It is the most famous rock album cover of all time: The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the many things that still fascinate us about this incredible album is the cover. The concept for the cover was called “people we like.”
According to artist Peter Blake, the designer of the iconic Sgt. Pepper cover: “In my mind I was making a piece of art rather than an album cover. It was almost a piece of theater design.”
Blake continues: “I offered the idea that if they had just played a concert in the park, the cover would be a photograph of them with the group who had watched the concert. If we did this by using cardboard cutouts, it could be whomever they wanted.”
Each of the four Beatles was told to compile a list of people they admired, and their choices would all be featured on the album’s cover. Ringo, always the least pretentious of the four, declined right off the bat. “Whoever the others choose is okay with me,” Ringo said.
John Lennon’s off-kilter mind immediately came up with Adolf Hitler and Mohandas Gandhi. Hitler was immediately nixed for obvious reasons. But, incredibly, a paper cutout of Adolf Hitler was actually made and was there at the photo session on March 30, 1967. Legend has it that Hitler was actually in the final shot, but during the session, one of the Beatles stood in front of him, covering the camera’s view. Gandhi got the axe by EMI executives, believing it would hurt album sales in the Far East.
George, “the mystic Beatle,” of course, chose four Indian gurus. Bob Dylan was a clear choice by all the Beatles, who worshiped Dylan.
Fred Astaire was definitely a “Paul” choice. The legendary dancer was an easy sell and was reportedly delighted to be featured. However, despite Paul’s initial assurance to EMI that all the requested “guests” would “love to do anything to please us,” several of the chosen figures gave EMI more than a bit of difficulty. Shirley Temple asked to hear the finished product produced before giving her consent.
The Beatles all wanted Mae West to be on the cover, but she was apprehensive. “What would I be doing in a lonely heart’s club band?” Mae asked. To placate the legendary sex symbol, all four Beatles wrote and signed a letter to Mae, and she finally agreed.

An interview with Terry Gilliam

If you don't know who Terry Gilliam is, shame on you.  I'm not here to tell you who he is, that's what Google is for.  Anyway, Vulture recently conducted an interview with the only American member of Monty Python; read a few questions below and the entire transcript here.

Did you see the Hunger Games? Everybody in the Capitol looked like they were wearing shoes on their heads.
I haven’t seen it yet. Do they really have upturned shoes for helmets?

Not really. But the costumes are definitely “Gilliam-esque.”
The thing is [my movie], Brazil is everywhere. Even Wall-E with the song: doot doot doot, doot do-do do doot. Because Brazil is the one thing that I’ve ever been involved with that is continually taught at film school. And so I guess anybody who is learning anything about filmmaking has Brazil stuck in their head somewhere. I don’t think the general public has a thing for it, but all film people seem to think it’s “an important film.” [Laughs.]

The coolest thing on the app is the outtake of John Cleese getting upset at your direction of his French Taunter. Is that amusing to you at this point?
That’s what I liked about doing [the app], that we wanted to be completely transparent all the time. So now the world can see. But I find watching it just kind of strange: I can’t believe the speed with which I talked. My wife couldn’t imagine the voice that I had back then. But it’s nice to have not memories, but facts. We’ve always embroidered the past and now we can see the truth.

What’s the last funny movie you saw?
Oh, Jesus. You’re really testing me here, because my memory is gone and anything beyond a couple weeks is ancient history. I haven’t seen anything funny for quite a while. The last scene in Burn After Reading had me in tears. That’s what I’ve laughed the most at most recently.

Is Burn After Reading the most visually interesting comedy you’ve seen recently?
Well, that’s the problem. Last night, I just happened to turn on the television and Anchorman was on. Which I’d never seen before. And it’s very silly, and other than costumes and hair it doesn’t depend on visuals to work. And both [Holy Grail co-director] Terry Jones and I, our feelings with Holy Grail were, it’s funnier if you’re really going to set the stage. So when a king rides through and you say, “How do you know he’s not a king? Because he has shit all over him” — well, you’ve got to establish shit in such quantities that it becomes funny. And John as the taunter, there was something very interesting about when he held his hands in the right position, his gauntlets kicked up in a very funny way. And it was just funny looking besides being an extraordinary performance. But anything that seemed to slow down the performance, or that John felt was taking too much time to set up, he hated because he’s quite serious about performance. But I think if you get the makeup, the costumes, the sets, the atmosphere right, the jokes are going to be funnier. And I think that’s the case with Holy Grail. It just feels like you’re there, in this primitive world where it’s rough and it’s ugly and you have many characters trying to maintain dignity and rise above the putridness of the place. That feels funny in itself.

Ted Trailer

I heard about this the other day, but kinda brushed it off.  A few people posted about it over the weekend, and I finally decided to take a look.  I have a little dislike for Family Guy so I wasn't sure how a Seth MacFarlane directed flick would turn out, especially one with a talking animal character; it's been done before.  And although "Ted" sounds exactly like Seth, this movie looks genuinely funny.  Check out the red band trailer below, via FilmDrunk:

Ted: Restricted Trailer - watch more funny videos

Rock Band Blitz

 

Tracy Morgan attempts to answer questions with 140 characters

He fails miserably, but it's hilarious (and ridiculous of course).  The interview is for the Shorty Awards, whatever they are.

Jewpacabra

New York, April 2, 2012 - Cartman searches for an elusive creature in the forests surrounding the town in an all-new episode of "South Park" titled, "Jewpacabra" premiering Wednesday, April 4 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.

South Park's big Easter egg hunt is in jeopardy when there are rumors of a dangerous beast lurking in the woods nearby. Cartman tries to warn everyone that their lives are at risk if they participate in the egg hunt. No one believes him until he produces video evidence of the mysterious being.

Jewpacabra
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PARKEric Cartman,Leopold "Butters" Stotch,more...

Via SPS

Psychic? Yeah, right

Came out of the store to find a bright pink piece of paper in my car door. It was $10 off for some psychic reading or whatever. Now, if they were truly psychic they wouldn't have bothered putting one in my door, knowing I would take one look at it and throw it on the ground. Which is exactly what I did. What a bunch of crap.

Dumb and Dumber 2 to begin production

I've mentioned it before, but now it's actually happening. Filming for Dumb and Dumber 2 is set for September, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and directed by the Farrelly Brothers. Personally, as long as Jim and Jeff are doing it, I'm on board. Can't be worse than Dumb and Dumberer, right?

April Fools!!!

Now that I got at least 1 person, happy April Fool's Day! The blog will remain open so don't be sad and please disregard the previous post. There was a subliminal message in there; check out the bolded letters. While your emotions are being messed with, please take a moment to click "like" on the right hand side. Thanks!

RIP The B Long Blog - Gotcha!

I regret to inform everyone that I will be ending the B Long Blog today.  I've just been too busy with work and other things lately that I can't put in enough time and effort to properly maintain the blog.  I lasted nearly a year, and made at least 1 post per day but that streak will be ending.  Sorry!  Maybe I'll bring it back someday, but for now please enjoy the plethora of posts I have made, as they won't be going anywhere.


EDIT: If you still don't get it, put together all the bolded letters and check the date of the post!