Dear Aaron...
I have a concern that I know you can answer!

CaptainKickass said:

Whilst scanning the internet for avenues of venting my rage I came across on 'eye on big brother' during a Google search. Attached on Page one was a lengthy article on Gretel, Glen, misogyny, stereotypes, cultural norms, accepted norms, psychology, gender issues, exploitation, manipulation, media bias and ego.

I was under the impression that "EyeonBigBrother" began in 2006 during Camillagate? Am I wrong? Did you start that blog the previous year and I missed out? What happened to those articles? Or maybe I misunderstood what CK said?

Please clear this up for me!

Kindest regards,
Derek.

Hi Derek,

I started this site in 2006, yes. That was site was initially all live blogs, and had a section called "Articles", which was a little more akin to what this year's site was. It only had a couple of longer, more developed discussions, but one of these was about BB and misogyny, and explored various examples of past seasons, including Shearer Glen. But it was written in 2006 for the first EOBB. So you didn't miss out on anything!

Cheers,

Eye/Aaron (Oh, I'll just be both for this... transition phase)

I cast my mind back over my BB journey, and discovering The Eye's blogs ranks as a life-changing event for me.

I was a fan off BB01 and watched it all. Then missed the next two years as my crowd of people were the type to act above watching it. I returned in 04 half way through, and got swept up in the whole double-house thing. At this point things turned sour.

Belinda-gate happened. Bree-gate happened. Fryzie and MLS-gate happened. Nevertheless I still liked the characters as characters without ever analysing it too much more than who deserves to win from a perspective of 'who could use it more'.

In BB05 I was instantly won over by he inclusion of twins (great trick I thought and great TV to watch the HM's figure it out). And then one day I discovered your blog.

Around the time of Glen's eviction (The Shearer) much outrage abound surrounding his comments and actions after the eviction of his inter-house lady -friend Michelle. I got swept up thinking 'how unfair they set him up to be roasted like that!' and 'for God's sake he was only joking and having a laugh.' - very infamous last words for the old me. And words I've sadly heard all too many times since.

Whilst scanning the internet for avenues of venting my rage I came across on 'eye on big brother' during a Google search. Attached on Page one was a lengthy article on Gretel, Glen, misogyny, stereotypes, cultural norms, accepted norms, psychology, gender issues, exploitation, manipulation, media bias and ego.

(I distinctly recall the vivid picture of an Eye at his supermarket, leaning over a counter to hear an in store speaker, to the point where a shopkeeper asked if he'd like it turned up.)

It took 3 reads to sink in on all the appropriate levels, but I was hooked. And have been so ever since.

In your blogs, beginning with this one, I learned some awful home truths about both the world around me and even myself. I couldn't believe I had allowed myself to be so blindly swayed by a misogynist !

It was truly a lightbulb moment for me.

And not a moment too soon. I was one of those starstruck by dreams of a life other than the one I have, where 100 days in BB-land would somehow provide me with an experience worthy of rejuvenating my existence in the real world.

I used what I learned here about the process, the structure, the editing, and sought advice from all sources, AND came perilously close to succeeding my dream one year (even after discovering this site). I foolishly continued to believe I could buck the trend of character destruction, and enjoy a 100 day holiday, if I just got a chance to show Australia what I was like.

Thank Goodness ... it failed, I woke up and I'm ever so relieved ! The process was ruthlessly ugly and I soon knew 'how' I would be chopped up eventually If I made it !

You've peeled away layers of naivety in a manner I dont think I could ever manage to happen by any other conventional way.

Through reading and listening to you, I feel wiser, smarter, more aware of the world around me and if nothing else provides more than enough gum for my brain to chew on !

The last 3 years with BB and on here, have largely been spent exposing hypocrisy, making life hell for production, galvanising anti-BB-corp sentiment and Crikey it's been so much fun ! And from a safer distance.

I just want to extend my gratitude to you, for choosing to do this and that I thank you for suffering through your commitment to us. I (and countless others) have enjoyed it more than a gushy rant or twenty could ever say. But here's mine anyway.

Totally absorbing. Thoroughly riveting. Always engaging. The best internet experience I've ever had.

Vale "Eye On Big Brother" !

Kindest Regards
Captain Kickass

PS - A very special cheerio to those in the worlds best chatroom. SOme very funny buggers, have made my drunken late nights all so entertaining over the last few years. I cant go without saying Kudos to some regulars (IG, Jess, Em, Terra, CC, Derek, Demelza, Protos Teeny, Suz, and everyone else who dropped by on my travels ... thank you, thank you, thank you !)I WILL be frequenting the chatroom at PPFBP once it begins again, so I hope to see you all there.

Thanks, Captain!

Kudos to you, you know you're one of our dearest friends here at both EOBB and PPBP - many, many thanks to you. Back over to PPBP we go...

Cheers,

Eye 

Well cult may be a slight exaggeration but really how different is it? A cult relies on compliance from its flock, absolute compliance, no questions, not doubting. Cults bombard their flocks with constant pro-cult messages until they stop thinking and stop questioning. They are taught to disassociate from and deride those who question the cult and when to many people start to question the cult it becomes weaker so the cult leaders become tougher and more desperate to keep control. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I almost feel like I am free. Free of the need to keep trying to believe when all the evidence points to BB's falsehoods.
Wish I had found you site before this year. I knew all was not right in BB land but your deconstructions of events polarised that for me. Your blogs re Terrence and Alice where outstanding. So thank you again.

Kaz

Hi Kaz,

Thanks so much! I actually think I saw some of your posts on the OS (I would drop in and read it, every now and then, just to gage the "vibe" out there), and I recognised your name from my inbox, and thought, "Wow, look at Kaz go!" I think it's a fabulous thing when people start to stand up against things, and especially in an environment like the OS, where there's that pack mentality amongst the... um... flock. So I'm really glad you found us here - better late than never. I had a lot of new users, this year, I was really happy with that - last year was just the 2006 crowd, but this year I intended it to find a bigger audience again, and it did (in fact, the hit rate was more than double last year). So thnaks for being a part of that! Hope you drop in sometime at aarondarc.com, there'll be plenty more discussions of plenty other pop culture cults! I think that's a fair analysis, actually - I usually relate it to political propaganda, but all these things have methods and aspects in common, and BB was probably the epitome of cult mentality amongst a fanbase, quite true. Thanks again!

Cheers,

Eye 

Hey Eye,

What can I say? I'll gladly join the others in your mailbox sending soppy farewells! That was another great year. I've been through all three versions of this site, I thought this was easily ther best! 

I don't know if you've heard, because I imagine you now want nothing to do with the words "Big" and "Brother" for a while, but Terri has now announced how she will spend the money...

On a facelift!

The end gets even more fitting.  

Thanks for making this whole experience worthwhile... something the show never managed to do on its own!

Michael

Thanks so much, Michael, glad you enjoyed it!

No, I didn't know that! But I just did a google, and you're right, she's getting a facelift. It's amazing how positive and productive the experience of Big Brother is, isn't it? So glad it can give its winner the confidence to... um... get a new face. How modern she is, after all ;)

Cheers,

Eye 

Hello :) Thanks for all your great posts, you've been fascinating to read.

Just wondering, what is the music in the video at the end of the The End post (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r74PQp9a2KM). Is it Claire de Lune? It's very familiar and I can't place it.

All the best,
Zoe

Hi Zoe,

With pleasure! It's so frustrating when we hear music in advertising and film, etc, and we don't have any way of placing it! Been there, many times. So, to put you out of your misery, it's Rachmaninov's "No.2 - Adagio Sostenuto".

Thanks so much,

Eye 

Fantastic work this year, Eye.

You magnificently found the "reality" in Big Brother.

Mica

Thanks so much, Mica! :)

Eye 

Well, I only discovered you this year and I'm kicking myself! I'm totally there at your next site, when will it be fully functional?

Well done with this one... a bloody good show! you make blogging so much cooler than it usually is these days!

Kim 

Thanks, Kim,

The other site, Pop Psychology For Beautiful People, is now fully functional at www.aarondarc.com. 

It's currently all old stuff, because I naturally don't add anything in the BB periods! I really need a bit of a break, so in a couple of days or so, I'll start publishing some new articles.

See you there,

Eye 

It's over and I actually don't feel a thing. Hmmm, although I have read each of your blogs I have barely watched the show nor engaged in the forums. Obviously I am not the only one.

Even the problems have not inspired my imagination or invited an emotional or intellectual response from me.

Thank you for sticking with it, and I have absolutely no doubt that your writing has generated the raising of many a consciousness. So, if Big Brother has at least affected this kind of change then it is not all bad.

Here's to Pop Psychology for Beautiful People and Aaron Darc's Unreal and all else that your imagination unleashes.

Cheers and Hip Hip Hooray to you

Sarah

Thanks so much, Sarah! I've really valued your support and friendship on these sites, over the years (as you know!).

:) Eye 

Hi Eye,
You wondered if Darren has since visited you here, I think Alice might have.  I can't remember if I saw it on the Live Stream or the Daily Show, Alice was doing the trainspotting task, I think with Brigitte and in the "acting" conversation, Alice  mentioned the name of the newspaper one of them worked for and she called it Big Brother Eye! What do you make of that?
All the best,
Rosalie

Hi Rosalie,

That was actually part of the task, because the show called the fake paper they were pretending to be working for, The Eye. Boom boom.

Cheers,

Um... The Eye 

A big thank you Aaron for your input over the past few years.  I chose not to watch this year, but managed to still keep in touch with your site, plus BBBA.  I have so enjoyed your writing over these past years and look forward to keeping in touch in the coming ones.  Thanks once again Aaron for being so insightful and making it worthwhile.  I can remember when BB first came on I was absolutely gobsmacked that they would even consider such a thing.  Watching the final montage last night (of course I made an exception and watched this) it really showed how far they had fallen in just eight years.  From a mature woman.

Thanks so much,

I know your name from my inbox, and thanks for being here all this time on this bizarre but kinda fabulous journey...

Cheers,

Eye 

Fancy Kyle calling anyone 'selfish'. Thanks for exposing what a lame pair of a-holes these two are. We knew this already but its nice to have it deconstructed.

They wanted someone stupid to win because they want a dumb audience. Its easier to sell stuff to dumb people.

Thanks for your series. Its like we're getting one back.

Poiter

A pleasure! Cheers,

Eye 

Hello Eye

I couldn't let this whole experience end without saying a final good-bye to you.  I don't want to really ramble on about how this show ended up  where it did and how it caused its  own demise.  I only want to say a "VERY BIG THANK YOU".  The analysis and writing were spot on  this season and struck a chord many times with me.  You, Eye became my "eyes" a long time ago. 

I'll see you where the "beautiful people" are...

All the best

Hello there, Protos!

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for your support... and for your impeccable spying skills!

See you there!

Cheers,

Eye 

Well no doubt you'll be swamped in thoughts and opinions over the next 24 hours.  I confess I didn't watch the whole show cause, well, I couldn't be bothered.  I sorta watched bits and pieces here and there as I heard something I might wanna see from where ever I was in the house.  The kids couldn't care less who won and went to bed on time, no arguments.  They didn't care either.

Mind you I told them yesterday after we'd heard that Alice and Travis had gone (even they - eldest 14 saw the irony in that), that first evicted would be Ben, then Rory and Terri would be the winner.  How funny that I wasn't even a little bit wrong.  It really became that predictable.

Gretel looked like she didn't care less about making a goodbye for the show - more looked like a "I'm having more fun here, cya suckers". It was the weirdest thing...can't put my finger on it but it was almost like a "why do you want me to say anything?" moment...not sure I'm still trying to figure out what was wrong with that picture.

Ahhh - the tear jerking moment on the Sandra Sully news feed.  Wasn't that not the cricketer but his wife who died?  Of course that was gonna get a good load of tears from Terri.  I just caught part of it but I was sure they were talking about Jayne McGrathe (correct me if I'm wrong) At that point when they were showing the news footage and concentrating on Terris reaction - I may as well have turned off - she'd won by then.  They just wanted to catch her every emotion right to the end.

Corey Worthington!  Holy "avoid the non-redeeming teen" questions batman!  "You went in to show Australia who you really were - you left and got arrested. what happened?" - "I caught up with Cherry."  No Kyle don't press him on what happened to redeeming himself - yeah - we all bought the bullshit of him redeeming himself to leave the house and get arrested - repeatedly no less.  Yep - I want him for my kid...not.  Cory is a master at one thing - avoiding anything he doesn't want to answer. 

The dance show was ok once they took all those boobs and bimbos off the screen.  Bianca looked like she was trying to have fun with the whole sex symbol thing but the other girls - boy!  You've got Zoo girls...give it a rest. 

Bianca may not have been the best and brightest there but I'll give it to her.  She knocked back Zoo, she graciously complimented the girls who chose to do a spread (oh dear I mean, I meant..oops), and under great pressure refused to back down on either her decision to not pose, nor reveal how much she was offered.  Girl has some hope.  I hope.

Conspicuously absent Rima (what they don't even mention she was a hm?  She just evaporated or what?), and also remember that guy who went in with Nathan and the big haired...Barney...what was his name...oh Michael!  He didn't show either.  Throw in a half grown puppy, scare it shitless with people who're so excited to see a fond memory they forget it's a dog and won't come running.  Are we having fun yet.  Oh that's right - it's BB of course we are.

I did find that the montage at the end was interesting for myself.  Cause I sort of looked for the year it "jumped" the shark for me.  I'm thinking it was the year of the Logan Twins.  Up till then it still had some interesting points in amongst the dullness.  After that it tried too hard, the people became more shallow and less interesting...and they tried too hard to make the ordinary human being more interesting.  Perhaps one of the things we saw in the first year was there was a lot of boring nights.  In fact I didn't end up watching till the end, when all the action took place. 

At the end, even though I knew it was scripted for Terri to win - I took a look at Rorys face and thought, if I'm wrong I'm gonna stick my foot through the TV.  He was way way too smug.  She won and I thought....nothing, went back to the kitchen - came back for the end montage.  Couldn't care less.  Cared less than any other year.  This year was a mess in every way.

They tried to invent relationships out of nothing!  The whole "who you giving your money to?" fiasco.  That they even brainstormed this year in the first place?

See you -----> over there.  I'm so glad we're done with this rubbish.  Excellent blog btw (sorry get wrapped up in my own ire sometimes).  Really hit the nail all the way through.  Look forward to tomorrows read!

Nikki

Thanks so much, Nikki!

Eye 

Hey Eye,

I came in a 1/3 of the way. Thanks so much! Reading your live blog as the "action" unfolded was a treat.  I even popped into the chatroom to have a gasbag about things during the show.

Your a ledge. Thanks for all your hard work yet again this year!

I hope you get some well deserved rest now :)

CC

Hey CC!

I shall! But a big thankyou to you, you have been one of the staples here, from the very beginning, and I just wanted to say thanks so much for your support (and your occassional tip off!) for the last three years.

Cheers :)

Eye 

hey eye,

what a disappointing ending. like you, i spent sunday and monday watching what i had already predicted was going to happen, bye bye alice and travis, bye ben and the winner is terri, oh boy how that was not a surprise.

i do not feel the same excitement i used to when i watched this show, before gretel sold her soul, before the sexual assults and night after night of packages of tits and ass, im only 19 and im already worried how this next generation is going to turn out. where young men believe it is ok to sexual intimidate woman and view them solely as sexual objects and young women think its absolutly exceptable for men to treat them this way, because the only way for men to respect them is to enforce the sterotype that they are only a dumb/non opinionated/ sexual object right? YUK!!!

eye im really really going to miss you, you have opened my eyes up to so many interesting issues. i love your analysis of this show and its people, because essentially thats what big brother was suppose to be about george orwells 1984(i doubt half the housemates even know of this book or fully understand its concept of a big brother world), and how much more interesting that would of been then boys with big dicks and girls with plastic breasts. your passion for the issues that others feel to confronting or "serious/over anaylising" to discuss makes me feel even more proud of my own strong opinions and big mouth, so thank you so so much.

i do wonder if nine/win or seven/prime do pick up this show, will you be watching it and will you be blogging it?

Emma

Hi Emma,

Thanks so much, that makes me rather proud of this site, when I hear younger people like you take so much from it. When I was your age, I was similar to you. Never let your big mouth be queitened by the ignorance ofothers. Because you'll always rock the boat of people who prefer... well... not to think. But we are many ;) This website proves that, I believe, and I am really chuffed, above all the other more practical and deliberate goals and reasons, that this website provided that kind of space. Thankyou, right back at ya!

I very much doubt you will ever see me doing this website again, I'm afraid! In fact, I'm 100% sure you won't! But if there is another BB, I will blog it and discuss it, but not with such focus, as part of my "home" blog, www.aarondarc.com. Oh yeah, my name, for those who don't know, is really Aaron. Pleased to meet you.

Unfortunately, one thing about saying things that are too confronting for people, is that they'll constantly try to shut you up, and just in time for this site to relaunch, some people with too much tech-savvy and not enough of a conscience, hacked my other site! So, we're fixing it, now. So, for the rest of today, you will hav to scroll down past the error messages, I'm afraid, but the site is all there, and it should be resumed to its proper experience, tonight. You can also join this website and use the forum boards, and I discuss everything and anything that takes my fancy - from political discussions, to film and music reviews. The content is currently all pre-BB anyway, so by this weekend, there'll be a "relaunch" of sorts, and some new material. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Eye 

Just a quick message to say that as the final reactions roll in (make sure you put it down and send yours in!) I won't necessarily be putting my own two cents worth in after every letter. There's lots to get through, and unless there's a specific question, etc, I don't need to jump in at the end!

The Eye 

So its all done and the producers hammered the last nail in the BB coffin and what did I feel?
I once was a BB tragic, I loved it and yet I felt more nostalgic and teary over the demise of FNL.
Geez, I had pictured the final moments of the show, with a shot of the interior of the empty house with a soundtrack of all the BB housemates past and present echoing through the house. gradually fading while the lights dimmed to black with the last words being said by BB "That is all".
It couldn't even hold my attention. I switched over to Top Gear in the ads and was watching Hammond learn to race a Formula 1 car, then realised I had missed a whole chunk of the final BB.
So again what did I feel? I just felt indifferent.

Kaz 

Thanks, Kaz! :)

Eye 

Hey Eye,

What a shit ending! I like that you live blogged it, but how about letting us know you were going to do that??!!! I just got here and found out too late! That can't be it!! Are you going to have any more articles?

Hi This Sux (that part on the webform is supposed to be where your name goes, so I'm left to refer to you as "this sux"!),

I only decided to do the live blog, about three hours beforehand, so yes, I realise it was late notice, it became an exclusive experience for the 80 or so people who found out in time and were here for it! But, apart from being a nice nod to the original blog I did (that was all live), it allows me to get the finale trivialities out of the way, so I can finish my last article, about the bigger picture. So, no, that's not the end - you've one more to go, which will be up sometime, tomorrow. See you, then?

Cheers,

Eye 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

xoMichelle,

Um... hi, Michelle!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, what?! What about that show could have possibly have been yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees??

Cheers,

Eye 

Yay to you for being so right about Terri.  Thank god Rory didn't win, atleast Terri will share her money with her family.  Rory would have just pissed and whored it all away. Thanks for the live blog, you had to endure a crap show (I only watched the last hour of it, about all that I could stand). Thanks Eye for your hard work this season.
Raye

Hi Raye,

Thanks so much! It was another great year, regardless of the quality of the subject matter!

Cheers,

Eye