LOLmates!!!
We've made a start... let the games begin! Send us more...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
And now, for something completely different.
For Amoir, who has kept us laughing so hard via her twitterfeed... it was her idea that spawned...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Blogs roundup
There's been some great coverage of Big Brother around in the past week or so.
Larvatus Prodeo, one of the top political blogs to be found on the web, have had their say on the formation of narratives of redemption in the season so far. It's a great critical roundup and we're planning to expand our comments from the post into a full entry for you here.
You can always count on Eye on Big Brother to have some interesting takes on the current situation in the BB arena. This year, much like us, she seems to be wondering if the fireworks aren't getting in the way of the show itself actually working on its most base level. Her most recent entry is similar in many ways to our point of view on the Corey vs. Bianca debate.
Tim Bruneo is, as always, keeping a keen eye on the household. Check out his website for a few good scoops (there are some distinct advantages to having a foot in the official door!). Most interesting so far from Brunero has been this article on the real enemy within the house - boredom - and his brutal laying down of how to manipulate both housemates and audience.
And what of our favourite entertainment website, Defamer? Well, after the mud-slinging joy that was their coverage of Michael's stripper girlfriend (and his demands to speak to their bosses), they're now on to the topic of Saxon's departure. We giggle, as always. And secretly hope this feud between themselves and Michael continue to grow (it's more exciting than the on-screen drama so far).
Lastly, the 'real' media seems to be largely quiet regarding Big Brother (other than the obvious Corey Commentary). You can of course check out Brisbane's Courier Mail and their yawn-worthy puff piece about Carson's entry into the house this Wednesday. Or how about the same publication's stale coverage of Saxon's departure? For a change of scene you could head over to The Age, where their coverage of Saxon's departure was so uninspiring it nearly sent us to sleep.
Larvatus Prodeo, one of the top political blogs to be found on the web, have had their say on the formation of narratives of redemption in the season so far. It's a great critical roundup and we're planning to expand our comments from the post into a full entry for you here.
You can always count on Eye on Big Brother to have some interesting takes on the current situation in the BB arena. This year, much like us, she seems to be wondering if the fireworks aren't getting in the way of the show itself actually working on its most base level. Her most recent entry is similar in many ways to our point of view on the Corey vs. Bianca debate.
Tim Bruneo is, as always, keeping a keen eye on the household. Check out his website for a few good scoops (there are some distinct advantages to having a foot in the official door!). Most interesting so far from Brunero has been this article on the real enemy within the house - boredom - and his brutal laying down of how to manipulate both housemates and audience.
And what of our favourite entertainment website, Defamer? Well, after the mud-slinging joy that was their coverage of Michael's stripper girlfriend (and his demands to speak to their bosses), they're now on to the topic of Saxon's departure. We giggle, as always. And secretly hope this feud between themselves and Michael continue to grow (it's more exciting than the on-screen drama so far).
Lastly, the 'real' media seems to be largely quiet regarding Big Brother (other than the obvious Corey Commentary). You can of course check out Brisbane's Courier Mail and their yawn-worthy puff piece about Carson's entry into the house this Wednesday. Or how about the same publication's stale coverage of Saxon's departure? For a change of scene you could head over to The Age, where their coverage of Saxon's departure was so uninspiring it nearly sent us to sleep.
Twittering this week
Sadly, we're away from the comfort of our usual Big Brother den this week. We've taken to Canberra, where our 'real' work has us at Parliament House. Which means very, very long hours with this week of budget joy. Which means workmates want the in-house television for the broadcast of budget announcements from the chamber. Which means they are unlikely to react too kindly to our demands that they turn the television over for Big Brother.
We may work for a Senator from the Australian Greens party, who are notorious for giving nearly anything a hearing at least once, but that doesn't mean they're putting this budget malarkey on hold for the important twittering that needs to take place. Saving the forests... what a waste of priorities.
So, much as it pains us, the twittering may be a little quiet for a bit. We're hoping to at least make it to the hotel in time to twitter Big Mouth tonight, but who knows.
Enjoy!
We may work for a Senator from the Australian Greens party, who are notorious for giving nearly anything a hearing at least once, but that doesn't mean they're putting this budget malarkey on hold for the important twittering that needs to take place. Saving the forests... what a waste of priorities.
So, much as it pains us, the twittering may be a little quiet for a bit. We're hoping to at least make it to the hotel in time to twitter Big Mouth tonight, but who knows.
Enjoy!
Eviction One Roundup
We can't say we missed the "it's time to go.... (keep pausing)... (keep pausing)... Saxon!" version of the eviction process last night, but overall what a right royal stuff up. The eviction was a shambles from start to finish, not just with the hilarious Benny Hill moment with the revolving doors where the first 'returned' housemate, Rory, was announced as David (thus ruining any and all tension for housemates and audience). Add to that the rather yawn-worthy process of watching housemates pick the most-likely suspects to evict, the lack of a good exit interview a-la Gretel and the tepid banter between Kyle and Jackie O and we were pretty much bored over here. How about you?
Honestly, as much as we're glad to have a little bit of a change of scene, Gretel did the evictions better. Her empathy for the housemates, her keen questions of them from eviction stage into the house, all added up to show us another aspect of the housemates and their personalities. They are certainly less 'defensive' as presenters regarding the public and media criticisms of the show. We like that they draw attention to the media hype, discuss it, put their opinion forward and don't complain beyond that. The more honest moments with Kyle and Jackie O add something to the show, that is clear. We'd rather the hosts weren't scooting around the issues the rest of us talk about. That, for us, works.
On the other hand, it seems the Sunday eviction shows are going to go more in the style of Friday Night Live. More skits, more showy bits and pieces, but less about the housemates themselves. We understand why producers must be reacting to people becoming bored with the format by trying to make things flash and sparkle with new things happening constantly, but it can't be expected to succeed if there is nobody for us to connect to. Why do we care how Saxon responds to 20 people sitting immediately in front of him when he is evicted instead of hundreds of people? We don't really care about him in the first place.
Here's hoping Big Brother has learnt a lot from their first botched eviction. We've never seen a show more devoid of drama and tension than the one last night in the entire collection of seasons put together. Saxon didn't seem to care he was evicted, the housemates didn't seem to fussed... even Travis didn't seem to care that he had to nominate who to save (and therefore who to place in danger) in front of his housemates.
The only positive surprise last night was the lack of ladies the Australian public put up for eviction. It is totally unheard of in BB history to have NO females up for eviction. Three out of the bottom four were boys. How did the house react to this? Sure, they commented on the fact that girls weren't up, but the boys looked horrified that their Spa Mafia were going to be torn apart (insert violins here, please). How have they failed? Why are audiences behaving differently towards them? Why didn't they like these boys? We're interested in the development, although not sure what it means. We have to be glad, though. It was especially surprising to see Dixie didn't make an appearance in the nominations. Has the Australian public forgiven her for crying all week and talking about wanting to go home? Perhaps she has struck a positive cord with people, but that is certainly a departure from the normal audience reaction to females who behave the way she has at this stage of the show.
And what about the new voting system as a whole? Well, as previously mentioned, it clearly didn't add more tension and drama into the format. Perhaps it gave us a good picture into how the housemates feel about each other, but so did the last method of voting. From here, it looked like a totally predictable outcome once Travis had used his power to put Rory in the eviction lineup. The daily shows give us a fair idea of the rifts in the house, or certainly the popularity of many characters. In previous years, part of the tension has come from housemates giving us options that we weren't really fussed about. What they found irritating, we found endearing. When given the chance, they would put the same people up week after week only to have them return unscathed to the housemates.
In this method, they have to become more focused on what the audience thinks first, then their housemates. This week, once given their voting options, there were housemates who would have felt confident they weren't leaving. Rory can't have stressed too much, looking next to him at housemates who are routinely criticised inside the house. When the votes went to the audience, housemates had no idea how they were being perceived (except if they had been lucky enough to escape eviction earlier, which often only indicated someone else was hated more) so the week-long process of being up for eviction was a form of slow torture. Here, they find out and are saved or evicted within the hour. They can look at their competition and weigh up, with plenty of clues, how likely they are to leave. Certainly as an audience we have much more of an idea how the housemates feel about the people they are voting on than how the voting public will sway.
While the first 'drama' eviction is over, the surprises and out-of-control format are set to continue. Carson enters the house this week, some housemates have already been spirited away to their magical retreat and (in case you haven't heard yet) Saxon was able to exact some revenge by his 'hand grenade' for the housemates he has left behind. More showy attempts by Big Brother to keep us glued to the screen... more distance away from the things that made many viewers tune in from the beginning.
Honestly, as much as we're glad to have a little bit of a change of scene, Gretel did the evictions better. Her empathy for the housemates, her keen questions of them from eviction stage into the house, all added up to show us another aspect of the housemates and their personalities. They are certainly less 'defensive' as presenters regarding the public and media criticisms of the show. We like that they draw attention to the media hype, discuss it, put their opinion forward and don't complain beyond that. The more honest moments with Kyle and Jackie O add something to the show, that is clear. We'd rather the hosts weren't scooting around the issues the rest of us talk about. That, for us, works.
On the other hand, it seems the Sunday eviction shows are going to go more in the style of Friday Night Live. More skits, more showy bits and pieces, but less about the housemates themselves. We understand why producers must be reacting to people becoming bored with the format by trying to make things flash and sparkle with new things happening constantly, but it can't be expected to succeed if there is nobody for us to connect to. Why do we care how Saxon responds to 20 people sitting immediately in front of him when he is evicted instead of hundreds of people? We don't really care about him in the first place.
Here's hoping Big Brother has learnt a lot from their first botched eviction. We've never seen a show more devoid of drama and tension than the one last night in the entire collection of seasons put together. Saxon didn't seem to care he was evicted, the housemates didn't seem to fussed... even Travis didn't seem to care that he had to nominate who to save (and therefore who to place in danger) in front of his housemates.
The only positive surprise last night was the lack of ladies the Australian public put up for eviction. It is totally unheard of in BB history to have NO females up for eviction. Three out of the bottom four were boys. How did the house react to this? Sure, they commented on the fact that girls weren't up, but the boys looked horrified that their Spa Mafia were going to be torn apart (insert violins here, please). How have they failed? Why are audiences behaving differently towards them? Why didn't they like these boys? We're interested in the development, although not sure what it means. We have to be glad, though. It was especially surprising to see Dixie didn't make an appearance in the nominations. Has the Australian public forgiven her for crying all week and talking about wanting to go home? Perhaps she has struck a positive cord with people, but that is certainly a departure from the normal audience reaction to females who behave the way she has at this stage of the show.
And what about the new voting system as a whole? Well, as previously mentioned, it clearly didn't add more tension and drama into the format. Perhaps it gave us a good picture into how the housemates feel about each other, but so did the last method of voting. From here, it looked like a totally predictable outcome once Travis had used his power to put Rory in the eviction lineup. The daily shows give us a fair idea of the rifts in the house, or certainly the popularity of many characters. In previous years, part of the tension has come from housemates giving us options that we weren't really fussed about. What they found irritating, we found endearing. When given the chance, they would put the same people up week after week only to have them return unscathed to the housemates.
In this method, they have to become more focused on what the audience thinks first, then their housemates. This week, once given their voting options, there were housemates who would have felt confident they weren't leaving. Rory can't have stressed too much, looking next to him at housemates who are routinely criticised inside the house. When the votes went to the audience, housemates had no idea how they were being perceived (except if they had been lucky enough to escape eviction earlier, which often only indicated someone else was hated more) so the week-long process of being up for eviction was a form of slow torture. Here, they find out and are saved or evicted within the hour. They can look at their competition and weigh up, with plenty of clues, how likely they are to leave. Certainly as an audience we have much more of an idea how the housemates feel about the people they are voting on than how the voting public will sway.
While the first 'drama' eviction is over, the surprises and out-of-control format are set to continue. Carson enters the house this week, some housemates have already been spirited away to their magical retreat and (in case you haven't heard yet) Saxon was able to exact some revenge by his 'hand grenade' for the housemates he has left behind. More showy attempts by Big Brother to keep us glued to the screen... more distance away from the things that made many viewers tune in from the beginning.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Webmate Michael's plans to get himself evicted...
Tim Brunero has an exclusive over on Oh Brother! about Michael's plans to get out of the Big Brother house in time to join his band on tour.
Check it out over here.
Check it out over here.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Corey Coverage
There are some strange things going on there in media land re Corey. Of course, you can find the usual kind of beat ups. Here is the Courier Mail's view on his entry to the Big Brother house.
What we're more interested in however is this Courier Mail story, click here for the article about his mother's recent arrest... which we are very confused about. Was she arrested for something to do with "that" party Corey held and the aftermath, or an entirely seperate incident? Let's hope an editor does a re-write on this story soon as it makes little to no sense right now.
What we're more interested in however is this Courier Mail story, click here for the article about his mother's recent arrest... which we are very confused about. Was she arrested for something to do with "that" party Corey held and the aftermath, or an entirely seperate incident? Let's hope an editor does a re-write on this story soon as it makes little to no sense right now.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Twitter coverage
Another reminder, our little twitter community is growing by the day. For an easy way to chat to other Big Brother followers as the show goes live why not join twitter and come play.
Twitter is free, takes less than a minute to join up to and provides a great way to meet other people following the show.
Join, visit our profile here, follow us, then check our favourites to see what everybody else has to say. From there you can follow whoever you like and talk backwards and forwards to your heart's content.
See you there!
Twitter is free, takes less than a minute to join up to and provides a great way to meet other people following the show.
Join, visit our profile here, follow us, then check our favourites to see what everybody else has to say. From there you can follow whoever you like and talk backwards and forwards to your heart's content.
See you there!
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