Who in the hell is
"This Site Administrator?"

There are many websites on the internet devoted to Russell Crowe - 91, at last count, and these are only the sites that belong to the Crowemates web ring! How not to be redundant? It's impossible! But, hey…being redundant about Russell Crowe is better than being redundant about, say, the sex life of the Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Unless you happen to be an Eastern Tent Caterpillar. Then you want a little redundancy.

The original purpose of this site was to create one big "meeting place" or planning site for all of the Russell Crowe / Grunt fans traveling to Austin for the 2000 TOFOG concerts (see the Ancient History pages). Fans could also buy t-shirts so that people could find and identify each other in a crowd. That worked out well, but once the concerts were over, there needed to be more or else this site was going to get tossed into the dustbin of internet history. It occurred to me that there really wasn't any site devoted to Russell specifically FOR the fans, with pieces written BY the fans. ALL of the fans, not just groups from one particular fan "residence" but from all of them (the word "residence" on this site refers to the fansite you most frequent - or maybe you belong to a mailing list, and don't chat or post to a message board; or maybe you don't interact at all, but would like to…). All sites have material submitted by fans from all over, of course, but at the time, there were only a few in existence (when this site was created, there were only 16 Russell Crowe fan sites on the net).

So where is my net "residence?" And who the hell am I? That's only interesting if you want to know from which viewpoint I'm coming from, so here it is, if you care: my interaction with other Russell Crowe fans began with the chat room attached to MaximumCrowe.com (which has since disappeared); from there, MRC survivors created The Outback, where we have our own chat room. When I created this site, I got to know a great many Russell fans via email and the sale of the Austin 2000 t-shirts, as well as from occasional postings to the RSTCA message board, the Perch, and from CrowePeople emails. When it appeared that there was a serious relationship between Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan, things changed. A great many fans loathe Meg Ryan, and the vociferous ones banded together and retreated to bitch and moan in peace on the RSTCVA message board (now called the Russell Crowe Beautiful Minds MB), so as not to offend the fans who didn't care or who strongly felt we shouldn't care, either. I identify closely with this group as well as with my primary sisters at the Outback, as well as the Perchettes and CrowePeople. Hell, I identify with all Russell fans everywhere…we ARE legion!

My net "experience" goes back a few years; if you've ever been a "General Hospital" fan, you might remember "Chili" from the Sonny / Brenda days when posters got in heated debates about this couple on the port-charles.com site. Ahhh, Brenda-bashing, those were the days. The internet was young, the sun shone brighter, the days were warmer… Anyway, if by some mind-boggling coincidence you were once a frequent visitor to that chat room, I'm the same Chili (name taken from Chili's, the Mexican-style restaurant with the fabulous nachos). Otherwise, you don't know WTF I'm talking about, and that's okay.

Enter Maximus. Saw Gladiator on May 5th, the day it opened in my local theaters. Wow. Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow. That's all I could say for a week. That weekend, I went surfing for Russell sites, something I'd never done before (heck, I "loved" Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, and Mel Gibson, but could care less if there were fan any sites about them… this was a first). My first landing was on - surprise! - MaximumCrowe.com, only one of 5 sites existing that first week in May. MRC at the time had the active chat room. Enter "Chilidog" into the fan fray. Some old-time Russell Crowe fans have a real problem when it comes to "newbies," fans who date from the post-Gladiator days. Some - not all, by any stretch, but some - of them have a real elitist attitude and have been known to get hostile…especially in those early days. If you didn't own TOFOG's "What's Her Name" CD (which is no longer available for sale), then you weren't a real Russell Crowe / Grunt fan. A lot of that nastiness has disappeared, fortunately; "we" seem to be one big happy family now (…for the most part…!). Which is a good thing, 'cause most of us are, indeed, newbies. Max drew us out into the open, and brought us together; TOFOG glued us all together; here we are, and here we plan to stay. Live with it.

I'm not exactly a newbie, in the purest sense. I DID know who Russell Crowe was prior to Gladiator. Being a movie freak all my life (but not a film encyclopedia, so please don't test me), I first saw him in The Quick and the Dead, and wondered who this good-looking guy was who mesmerized me. Ran into him again in Virtuosity, and thought, hey, who is that guy, I've seen him before… and remembered his name from TQ&TD. Then came LA Confidential, and when I saw the trailer, I recognized him and could identify him. After seeing that tremendous film, I was hooked. Loved him in The Insider, and rooted for him on Oscar night 2000 (can you say ROBBED?). Then, before a viewing of The Beach in February 2000 came the Gladiator trailer…I sat bolt upright and nearly flew home to download the trailer file from the net, having scribbled the www.gladiator-thefilm.com address on a napkin. And that, my friends, was that. Glad you asked!

Chili / Chilidog / Chilidawg
Barbarian of the Outback Chat Room
Femdog & Bitch of Russell Crowe's Beautiful Minds MB
Frequent Guest of the Crowe's Perch MB
CrowePeople Lurker
Email Hound
Sharpener of John Nash's Pencil
Keeper of Terry's Black Tank
Keeper of Max's Sword
Keeper of Jeff Wigand's Bathroom Scale
Keeper of John Biebe's Skates
Keeper of Bud White's Piece
Novitiate of Father Cort's Temple of the Fallen Angels
Keeper of Sid's Nanogoo Refill Pack
Keeper of Hando's Milk Bottle
Keeper of Andy's Dishrag
Keeper of Arthur's Giggle
Keeper of Jeff's Footy Shorts
Keeper of Lachlan's Wings

top