After winning Head of Household, Matt confers with other paint-covered members of The Brigade and Brendon (right), who knew he and Rachel would be nominated for eviction when he lost the competition. (Photo courtesy of CBS Entertainment)

Rachel’s gone, and the reign of the boringest alliance in ‘Big Brother’ history continues.

Matt, after winning Head of Household for the second time and wanting to assure that this time one of the pair would leave, nominated both Rachel and Brendon for eviction on Sunday’s episode.

Britney’s win at the Power of Veto competition (hosted by Season 11 favorites Jeff and Jordan, in an obvious effort to generate interest in this lackluster season) and choice not to use it assured that, of the two nominees, Rachel would be evicted.

For the Brigade (Matt, Enzo, Lane and Hayden), Rachel (who won two Head of Household competitions and demonstrated surprising acumen at manipulating other house guests — besides Brendon), was a serious obstacle in their stroll to the final four.

For everyone else (Kathy, Britney and Ragan), Rachel’s explicit efforts to evict floaters impaired their, likely unsuccessful (especially now, with The Brigade in control of the majority of votes), strategies to fly under the radar all the way to the finals.

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Rachel and Kristen get into a mildly interesting tiff on 'Big Brother'. With Kristen out, even little skirmishes are barely possible.

For reasons I do not fully understand (primarily that I volunteered to write weekly updates of my former favorite summertime reality television show), I am watching Big Brother despite its tedium and Matt’s continued presence in the house.

Since I last wrote: Andrew was evicted, Rachel won Head of Household and nominated Hayden and Kristen for eviction, Britney won Power of Veto and decided not to use it and Kristen was evicted almost unanimously by the (still secret) Brigade and house guests too scared to vote against the majority.

Kathy has consistently been the minority vote, and that has earned her my admiration.

I have always liked Britney. But my esteem grows as she continues to ridicule everyone (to their faces and in the privacy of the diary room) yet remains in the house through a combination of desperate — but convincingly sincere — flattery, shrewd game play and luck in competitions. Despite discovering Britney in the Head of Household room wearing her red extensions and mocking the way she speaks, Rachel said she wants to form an alliance with Britney.
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Palm Beach International Airport.

Editor’s Note: We’ve just started a new series called “New In Town”, where newcomers to Palm Beach County check out the restaurants, bars, clubs and venues that make our home fun. Today, pbpulse.com producer Joshua Nichol-Caddy looks at West Palm Beach and how easy it is to pay a visit. If you’ve lived in the area less than six months, and you’d like to contribute, give us a shout at pbpulse@pbpost.com.

Most cities are simple. Some (such as the Omaha of my youth) want visitors to leave. Some (such as Detroit) need — and as a result implore rather desperately for — visitors to stay.

Good cities are more complicated. They appreciate visitors for however long they stay and understand that every visitor must eventually leave, be it for a weekend or forever.

Good cities abide, confident that for every visitor who leaves another few will come. As such, good cities neither speed nor impede your departure.

West Palm Beach is a good city.
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Matt -- the kind of guy who'd suddenly change up the 'Free Parking' rule in Monopoly to win.

After Matt won Head of Household, he received a letter from his wife in which she discussed her illness. This convinced the other house guests, even the skeptical doctor Andrew, that Matt truly wanted to win Big Brother to pay for cancer treatment.

That was it.

I realized why I find Big Brother 12’s Matt so offensive, and perhaps why I cannot watch the show until he is evicted.
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Duval Street at a decidedly more tame time period. (Post file photo)

Editor’s Note: We’ve just started a new series called “New In Town”, where newcomers to Palm Beach County check out the restaurants, bars, clubs and venues that make our home fun. Today, pbpulse.com producer Joshua Nichol-Caddy takes on one of the ultimate South Florida quests — Hemingway Days in Key West. If you’ve lived in the area less than six months, and you’d like to contribute, give us a shout at pbpulse@pbpost.com.

My weekend in Key West “for Hemingway Days” began with what seemed an interminable drive: The car ahead of ours slowed progress on the two-lane bridges until Marathon (when we pulled off for IHOP because no one in the car had eaten since lunch and Bobby, the Australian voice of the car’s GPS, suggested it).

It was late when my friends and I pulled into El Patio Motel, a cheap, though totally respectable, hotel within walking distance of the southernmost point in the continental United States. Its pool and full kitchens, in rooms for occupants staying longer than a weekend (or us), proved invaluable.

At this point I gladly would have collapsed onto my portion of the fold-out bed.

But Key West will not be denied.
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It's hard to miss the 'Papa' lookalikes this time of year. (Photo by Joshua Nichol-Caddy)

Editor’s Note: We’ve just started a new series called “New In Town”, where newcomers to Palm Beach County check out the restaurants, bars, clubs and venues that make our home fun. Today, pbpulse.com producer Joshua Nichol-Caddy takes on one of the ultimate South Florida quests — Hemingway Days in Key West. If you’ve lived in the area less than six months, and you’d like to contribute, give us a shout at pbpulse@pbpost.com.

After work Friday, a couple of friends and I drove to Key West, ostensibly for Hemingway Days.

The annual celebration culminates in a weekend of events, which includes a fishing tournament, “Papa” Hemingway look-alike contest (in which contestants must fish and run with fake bulls as well as bear striking resemblances to the famous author), Caribbean street fair and 5k sunset run.

Consummate-planner me wants to say we did some (or even one) of those things. I want to say: We arrived early to the marlin weighing, toured Hemingway’s former residence and congratulated the winner of the writing competition.

New, Key West-emboldened me does not think missing every one of these events means I missed out. I had a fantastic time in Key West. I did what I wanted and never once thought about where to be, and when. (It takes some powerful Caribbean magic for that to have happened.)
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Monet's exit unfortunately makes 'Big Brother' a little too predictable. (CBS)

While I will continue watching to see how CBS will salvage this season after the early eviction of The Saboteur, “Big Brother” is predictable and boring.

Matt, the self-proclaimed brains of The Brigade, stayed. Monet was evicted.

As far as the game: I don’t want to admit it, but Rachel was right to nominate Matt as a pawn. And the house guests were right to go along with it and evict Monet.
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With parents who are musicians, Matt Farr, a Florida native, was immersed in music from a young age. And, though music has been his lifelong passion, the piano was something that he “kind of fell into.”

His style has been compared to the piano rock of Billy Joel, but, unlike Joel, Farr has never toured as a solo act. Now, after years of being part of different bands, Farr wants to “do something different, something that was 100 percent my effort.”

Local audiences will have the chance to hear music from Farr’s debut solo album on Friday at the City Place Concert Series.
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Bye-bye-bah-bye... Annie is on the outside looking in. (CBS)

My Presbyterian grandmother in Nebraska has achieved greater sabotages than Annie, The Saboteur and first person evicted, during her stint in the Big Brother house.

Granted, like all good sabotages, those achieved by my grandmother are deft manipulations of regular situations rather than overt attempts to engineer exceptional ones. Annie said as much. She “tried to play twice the game in half the time.”

Annie was correct. Intelligence and zeal lead to eviction.
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The outdoor deck at Havana Hideout only added to the more sand-and-surf feel of downtown Lake Worth. (Photo by Joshua Nichol-Caddy)

Editor’s Note: We’ve just started a new series called “New In Town”, where newcomers to Palm Beach County check out the restaurants, bars, clubs and venues that make our home fun. Today, pbpulse.com producer Joshua Nichol-Caddy heads to downtown Lake Worth to take in the sights. If you’ve lived in the area less than six months, and you’d like to contribute, give us a shout at pbpulse@pbpost.com.

Walking Lake Avenue, I got the feeling I was somewhere besides South Florida.

While touting their beaches and cultural diversity to tourists, communities I’ve visited as a local highlight neither. Many of the downtown areas feel like the strip malls back home (though ever-so-slightly more humid).

Until I experienced downtown Lake Worth, Stuart (which, perhaps because I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest at the Lyric Theatre, reminded me of the seaside town of The Birds) was the single exception to my assessment.
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