Saturday, April 29, 2006
Crushing Crowe
Something I once noticed about the folks of the English bent, including the down under Australian brand, is the way the corner pub is an extention of their front rooms. There is a bit of formality, no walking around in their underwear, but they seem to drink to be companionable and when the mood is right, they sing.
There is someone singing in their pubs that is putting on a gypsy show that will knock you on your ass it is so good. It is a mix of in-your-face theater and of passionate emotion with vocals that burn the beat down to your soul.
It is Russell Crowe and The Ordinary Fear of God (TOFOG).
I have put Russ on my tivo as a "must watch". I have been wanting to catch all his old movies from his younger days (Heaven's Burning, The Crossing, Proof, Silver Stallion, etc.). They pop up now and then on IFC and other American cable channels.
I was surprised recently when a Jay Leno show was on my playlist. Curiously, I started the playback. Jay went directly into an introduction of Russell and the band. What does that name mean, I wondered?
He started quiet and slow, but the beat was catchy. I tuned the sound up a bit to catch the words of the song, Testify. Slowly, he punched out the sly story ending. I was hooked and replayed it. I listened intently again.
I continued to wonder what was up with the band name? A gimmick? I went googling on the web and found tons of pages about the band. What a surprise. I had no idea about the music side of Russell's career. I found out about his working in his father's pubs, DJ-ing, quitting high school, singing in a touring Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS, 415 times he says, lol).
My children were RHPS fans and hardly missed a show all the way through their teen years, dragging me along several times, dumbfounding some of their friends to want to have their Mom come, too. It was a coolness factor thing between the kids and I. A regular Saturday night date site for both the goth and geek tribes.
After RHPS, Russell performed guitar street music with his long-time friend Dean Cochran for coins to live on while he tried to get regular pub gigs and break into 'show' business. And then he was pulled into the acting side of performance to do some Aussie TV soaps, a TV mini series, and then some local movies.
His heartful centered passion is in his music, and as he says, acting is his 'day' job. It paid for the world class recording studio in the shed (The Padded Cell) on his ranch. Foremost in his own mind, he is a songwriter, composer and lyricist. He is a working bloke as he says, and he puts in a full steam, passionate effort into his acting. But he is someone else when he is doing that work.
He is himself when he sings. And he sings about his own life and his own emotional unfolding. It is not simple stuff. It is introspective, deeply thought out, and sensitively felt (e. g. Weight of a Man, Raewyn, Mr. Harris).
He had an uncle who was an ethnomusicologist, studying the music of the tribes in Papua New Guinea. His uncle heard him singing early on and told him essentially that he was shallow and derivative. Told him if he wanted to make real music, he had to put his soul on the line, into the words and lay out the personal emotion backing what he was singing.
Russell says "he said anyone could have done this, anywhere – you are not present in the songs, they have no geo-socio-political integrity. Yeah…that's not as easy as it sounds...I hope the crotchety old prick knows I'm finally present in these songs, and it is probably due to him." (From comments written about Raewyn.)
When I heard this it resonanted with the advice I have given my kids about their careers. Please, God, do something you love and can get some satisfaction from. Do something you love getting up in the morning to do, for the rest of your life. Independent of what others may judge about you -- be contented, be a passionate teammate, and be focused on professional excellence. There is a key to a lifetime of happiness in there.
Russell seems to have found this out, too.
I was drawn to read more and more about him. I was drawn to hear what he says in interviews. I wanted to get to know the man outside of his acting performances and superficial conversations fronting and supporting the corporations putting up the piles of money for his 'day' job.
His father took the family on a wandering path when Russell was growing up -- he and Russell's mother worked as movie studio caterers and pub rehabilitators -- cleaning up a pub, getting it on good footing and then moving on. Russell learned guitar early, doing popular sheet music songs at 8 years old. (This is from a comment he made introducing a duet with Kris Kristofferson of Me and Bobby McGee on a PBS Sound Stage special).
His early musical influences were country, blues, rock-n-roll and folk music. The songs he writes are romantic and have sing-along stayability. I'll Never Be Alone Again and Inside Her Eyes comes to mind of his early work.
Ok, now my facination with the man is getting serious. I am getting mind-f*cked by this guy. I am starting to get that glazed, epileptic, eyes-rolled-back feeling of a serious teeny-bopper crush. I am replaying any of the music I can find to rip and put it on endless loop to accompany me for hours at my desk. Over and over. Spacey. Gooey. I ordered every CD available from Australia and from Amazon.com.
I spent the morning reading people's fan write-ups from their experiences at his small concert tours from the last year or so. I spent yesterday and last evening replaying his TV interviews for Cinderella Man. That was interesting to do in one sitting. Hearing him on every talk show, from Oprah, Conin, Degeneras, the Daily Show and all the way to Charlie Rose and the Actor's Studio.
I look at pictures of him with his 18th month son, Charlie. Hear him talk of the coming arrival of their second son in July.
See him in cowboy outfits - a la The Man from Snowy River in videos at his 'farm' where he raises cattle and rides his bay, Honey.
See him showing Oprah a video of the inside of the vertigras-domed chapel he has built on his ranch with the second-century roman mosaic of the two intwined fish on the center of the bare round terracotta floor.
This little private place is what he build to be married in and where his son was christened. Inside it gives me a close feeling just like the chapel we build at St Raymond's and the one we rehabilitated at Holy Redeemer for weekend Cursillo and Marriage Encounter retreats. It is so alike, especially in the lighting, and the colors in the artful cut glass windows.
It is a personal place to go and think and be healed and to celebrate. Romantic as hell. He says the main window of his chapel was placed so that the light would shine through onto Danielle's dress late in the afternoon just as they exchanged vows. (What attention to detail!)
He is well-loved by his community, too. His ranch is in Nana Glen in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia north of Sydney. The folks from the area around his ranch lined the road leading to his farm as a sort of honor guard for his wedding. He has donated the money for the public swimming pool soon to be completed.
I imagine I am owning a small country house near him and occasionally seeing him in passing and waving. What a dippy girly thought. Yup, full blown crush.
He said to Oprah, "I am not necessarily the one who dances on the table top. But, I'll probably take you along to the point where you think you want to dance on the table top."
About this crush. My motto is -- This, too, shall pass -- into fond memories as I listen to his voice on my CDs and think of the 300 folks in the San Diego House of Blues, drinking a toast to life down at the pub with him.
There is someone singing in their pubs that is putting on a gypsy show that will knock you on your ass it is so good. It is a mix of in-your-face theater and of passionate emotion with vocals that burn the beat down to your soul.
It is Russell Crowe and The Ordinary Fear of God (TOFOG).
I have put Russ on my tivo as a "must watch". I have been wanting to catch all his old movies from his younger days (Heaven's Burning, The Crossing, Proof, Silver Stallion, etc.). They pop up now and then on IFC and other American cable channels.
I was surprised recently when a Jay Leno show was on my playlist. Curiously, I started the playback. Jay went directly into an introduction of Russell and the band. What does that name mean, I wondered?
He started quiet and slow, but the beat was catchy. I tuned the sound up a bit to catch the words of the song, Testify. Slowly, he punched out the sly story ending. I was hooked and replayed it. I listened intently again.
I continued to wonder what was up with the band name? A gimmick? I went googling on the web and found tons of pages about the band. What a surprise. I had no idea about the music side of Russell's career. I found out about his working in his father's pubs, DJ-ing, quitting high school, singing in a touring Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS, 415 times he says, lol).
My children were RHPS fans and hardly missed a show all the way through their teen years, dragging me along several times, dumbfounding some of their friends to want to have their Mom come, too. It was a coolness factor thing between the kids and I. A regular Saturday night date site for both the goth and geek tribes.
After RHPS, Russell performed guitar street music with his long-time friend Dean Cochran for coins to live on while he tried to get regular pub gigs and break into 'show' business. And then he was pulled into the acting side of performance to do some Aussie TV soaps, a TV mini series, and then some local movies.
His heartful centered passion is in his music, and as he says, acting is his 'day' job. It paid for the world class recording studio in the shed (The Padded Cell) on his ranch. Foremost in his own mind, he is a songwriter, composer and lyricist. He is a working bloke as he says, and he puts in a full steam, passionate effort into his acting. But he is someone else when he is doing that work.
He is himself when he sings. And he sings about his own life and his own emotional unfolding. It is not simple stuff. It is introspective, deeply thought out, and sensitively felt (e. g. Weight of a Man, Raewyn, Mr. Harris).
He had an uncle who was an ethnomusicologist, studying the music of the tribes in Papua New Guinea. His uncle heard him singing early on and told him essentially that he was shallow and derivative. Told him if he wanted to make real music, he had to put his soul on the line, into the words and lay out the personal emotion backing what he was singing.
Russell says "he said anyone could have done this, anywhere – you are not present in the songs, they have no geo-socio-political integrity. Yeah…that's not as easy as it sounds...I hope the crotchety old prick knows I'm finally present in these songs, and it is probably due to him." (From comments written about Raewyn.)
When I heard this it resonanted with the advice I have given my kids about their careers. Please, God, do something you love and can get some satisfaction from. Do something you love getting up in the morning to do, for the rest of your life. Independent of what others may judge about you -- be contented, be a passionate teammate, and be focused on professional excellence. There is a key to a lifetime of happiness in there.
Russell seems to have found this out, too.
I was drawn to read more and more about him. I was drawn to hear what he says in interviews. I wanted to get to know the man outside of his acting performances and superficial conversations fronting and supporting the corporations putting up the piles of money for his 'day' job.
His father took the family on a wandering path when Russell was growing up -- he and Russell's mother worked as movie studio caterers and pub rehabilitators -- cleaning up a pub, getting it on good footing and then moving on. Russell learned guitar early, doing popular sheet music songs at 8 years old. (This is from a comment he made introducing a duet with Kris Kristofferson of Me and Bobby McGee on a PBS Sound Stage special).
His early musical influences were country, blues, rock-n-roll and folk music. The songs he writes are romantic and have sing-along stayability. I'll Never Be Alone Again and Inside Her Eyes comes to mind of his early work.
Ok, now my facination with the man is getting serious. I am getting mind-f*cked by this guy. I am starting to get that glazed, epileptic, eyes-rolled-back feeling of a serious teeny-bopper crush. I am replaying any of the music I can find to rip and put it on endless loop to accompany me for hours at my desk. Over and over. Spacey. Gooey. I ordered every CD available from Australia and from Amazon.com.
I spent the morning reading people's fan write-ups from their experiences at his small concert tours from the last year or so. I spent yesterday and last evening replaying his TV interviews for Cinderella Man. That was interesting to do in one sitting. Hearing him on every talk show, from Oprah, Conin, Degeneras, the Daily Show and all the way to Charlie Rose and the Actor's Studio.
I look at pictures of him with his 18th month son, Charlie. Hear him talk of the coming arrival of their second son in July.
See him in cowboy outfits - a la The Man from Snowy River in videos at his 'farm' where he raises cattle and rides his bay, Honey.
See him showing Oprah a video of the inside of the vertigras-domed chapel he has built on his ranch with the second-century roman mosaic of the two intwined fish on the center of the bare round terracotta floor.
This little private place is what he build to be married in and where his son was christened. Inside it gives me a close feeling just like the chapel we build at St Raymond's and the one we rehabilitated at Holy Redeemer for weekend Cursillo and Marriage Encounter retreats. It is so alike, especially in the lighting, and the colors in the artful cut glass windows.
It is a personal place to go and think and be healed and to celebrate. Romantic as hell. He says the main window of his chapel was placed so that the light would shine through onto Danielle's dress late in the afternoon just as they exchanged vows. (What attention to detail!)
He is well-loved by his community, too. His ranch is in Nana Glen in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia north of Sydney. The folks from the area around his ranch lined the road leading to his farm as a sort of honor guard for his wedding. He has donated the money for the public swimming pool soon to be completed.
I imagine I am owning a small country house near him and occasionally seeing him in passing and waving. What a dippy girly thought. Yup, full blown crush.
He said to Oprah, "I am not necessarily the one who dances on the table top. But, I'll probably take you along to the point where you think you want to dance on the table top."
About this crush. My motto is -- This, too, shall pass -- into fond memories as I listen to his voice on my CDs and think of the 300 folks in the San Diego House of Blues, drinking a toast to life down at the pub with him.
# posted by Dornar @ 12:00 PM 
