Post by marshagarsha on Jan 19, 2011 3:55:41 GMT
Hi!
I'm Martha, and I'm pretty new here. I introduced myself a couple of weeks ago, and I asked if anyone had seen JR at his hometown appearance back in September. As far as I know, I'm the only one. I promised the few folks who asked that I'd write about it. Sorry, I have been incredibly busy between work and parenting and all that jazz. I finally took the time to write about it. Hope you all enjoy hearing about it. OK, here's the story....
My friend Lauri and I (she's 49, I'm 45....so we're pathetically old fan girlz) had the most fun day ever going to see Jeremy Renner at the Gallo Center in Modesto, even though our friends deemed us stalkers for driving that far! LOL!
First of all, I had no idea Modesto was so close. I live in Fremont, in the SF Bay Area. I thought Modesto was a few hours away, but it only took us an hour to get there. Generally Modesto is considered a real hole, but I must say that the downtown area is built up fairly well and is very cute. The Gallo Arts Center is gorgeous and brand new, totally state of the art. They have a lot of good events and concerts that come there and for very reasonable prices. Given how close it is, we may end up going back there in the future, Jeremy Renner or not.
Lauri and I arrived in Modesto at 3:00pm and the event wasn't until 7:00pm. It was a beautiful, sunny, nice day and we had tons of time to kill, so we drove around to get our bearings. For fun, we'd Google Mapped out Jeremy Renner's mom's house. OK, I know we sound like insane stalkers, but please read this:
www.modbee.com/2008/01/05/170967/actor-jeremy-renner-escapes-injury.html
There's a picture of his mom's house right there w/the name of her street. It's only two blocks long so it wasn't hard to find the right house. Not to disappoint you guys, but we drove by, took a picture and left. All in all, it was pretty boring and uneventful, but we did scream a little bit inside the car. Told you...pathetic!
Here's a pic we took from my car while parked a half block away.
www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7200164&l=67faebc46d&id=502758297
After we drove by his mom's house, we noticed a street fair going on a block or two away. We decided what the hell, we have time to kill. Let's stop by. Turns out, it was the Modesto Gay Pride Festival. Keep in mind, Lauri and I are from the Bay Area....one of the most gay-friendly, liberal places on earth. Modesto, however, and most of the central valley of CA is very conservative, so that really surprised us. Lauri and I thought that only WE could drive to Modesto and end up in a gay pride event. We wandered around and sat down to watch a show by a troupe of drag queens called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. We saw (no joke - I could NOT make this up) Mora Lee Declined, Bambi Dextrous, and Freddie Prinze Charming. Awesome...a totally hilarious bonus for our already excellent day.
By this time, it was close to 4pm, so we drove back to the performing arts center (5 minutes away), parked, and walked two blocks to dinner at a lovely little place called Harvest Moon Cafe. If you ever find yourself in Modesto, I highly recommend it. Then we saw this on a marquis and, because we are dorks, had to stop in the middle of the street to take a picture....
www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7200592&l=7c55ce21e6&id=502758297
After we were done eating and being lame, we went back and it was 5:30. We knew the doors opened at 6:30, so we scoped out the place, and shmoozed the ticket office guy. The entire event was general admission, but priced in three location tiers. He showed us a map of the different priced sections, and told us exactly where to wait and what door to enter to get the best possible seats. Then, we went over to the proper door and shmoozed the ticket taker ladies. We had a blast chatting w/them. Seriously, the entire city of Modesto is SO proud of this guy. Pretty much nobody makes it out of Modesto a success. The most famous person outside of Jeremy Renner is George Lucas. It's a real cow town, mostly. Everyone in town is excited to have him back there to talk about his career and his life growing up there.
Anyway, so Lauri and I were first in line to go in. Squeeeee! Showing up early had its advantages!
The doors are supposed to open to the public at 6:30. At 6:20, a pretty woman in her mid 30s walks up and stands directly next to us. We chat a bit, then they let her in. Who's she? Oh, she's Jeremy Renner's sister Kym! A few minutes later, two cute younger looking guys walk up and stand directly next to us. Who are they? Jeremy Renner's brothers! A few moments after that, we see his mother walk in. We recognized her from the Oscars. She and a few other friends or family members just standing there literally next to us, so a few of us in the front of the line chatted with her. Totally nice lady. Fun stuff, but darnit, we were hobnobbing with the incorrect Renners while, as I found out later, JR was around the corner in a different area of the lobby giving press interviews. ARGH!!!!!
Finally, we go in. Totally intimate theater. The arts center has two of them, so we're in the smaller one that seats about 500 people. We were in the third row, literally ten feet from the stage. His entire immediate family? Right in front of us! No photography allowed though. We were crushed. The worst part of the no photos rule is that we have no proof that we were there.
Finally, JR comes out, and he's dressed totally casual. You've seen the pics - I think the screen caps are posted here somewhere. He's wearing jeans, boots, a black and grey flannel shirt, and a lot of those really sexy masculine type rings and thin bracelets like Johnny Depp always wears. That's a weak spot of mine, especially since I'm very attracted to men's hands in general. Wooof! Oh man, what a FANTASTIC interview. It was very "Inside the Actor's Studio" and done by the director of the theater arts program at the local JC, where Jeremy Renner first discovered the acting bug at age 19. Basically, the interviewer had known him since he was 19 and directed him in his first couple of community college plays.
I'm putting the fact that I think the guy is totally hot aside. For someone who's star is rising so far, he is really a northern CA guy at heart. He's absolutely charming! Someone on here asked me what he is like in person. He was no less than ten feet away, I'd have to say he comes across as extremely sincere, affable, witty, and with a TON of awesome snark, SUPER intelligent, highly articulate and expressive, and seemingly completely humble and so level-headed. There's nothing about him the seems snobbish or entitled in any way, none of that crap that you would kind of expect from some Hollywood celebs out there. One of the things he talked about was how the paparazzi doesn't really bug him much, but the press does. He said they are really intrusive and lie a lot, or at least exaggerate a lot. We all know that, but it was interesting to hear a celeb tell it.
The best part though was when the interviewer guy asked him to sing a song. One of the reasons I like him so much is cuz he's an incredible singer. I'm a musician too, and I think he has raw talent. He could cut a record today under a phony name and people would buy it. You could tell he was REALLY uncomfortable and didn't want to just belt out a tune, but he did it. He sang the entire version of Billy Joel's NY State of Mind w/Brother Sal accompanying him on piano. Oh, and Brother Sal was his opening act....did I mention that? He's great too! Back to JR though.....seriously, his singing performance was flawless. No warmup, nothing. He just cranked it out, perfectly in pitch, just completely professional sounding. Lauri and I were pretty much swoony jello puddles by that point.
And then it was over.
We asked our usher friends if they could somehow get us into the private reception, but they said sorry, no. And again, no photography......so we got nuthin'. ( But what a memorable night. He's gonna become even more famous and someday win some overdue Oscars, I am positive of it....and I'll be very proud to say we saw him do that little interview for his beloved little hometown community!
One final note - all of this happened on Saturday, Sept 18 which incidentally was Yom Kippur. Both Lauri and I are Jewish. We spent the holiest day of our religion's year stalking Jeremy Renner in Modesto when we were supposed to be in synagogue and fasting all day. Whoooops! I just hope God forgives me, but it's Jeremy so SURE he will. LOL!
I'm Martha, and I'm pretty new here. I introduced myself a couple of weeks ago, and I asked if anyone had seen JR at his hometown appearance back in September. As far as I know, I'm the only one. I promised the few folks who asked that I'd write about it. Sorry, I have been incredibly busy between work and parenting and all that jazz. I finally took the time to write about it. Hope you all enjoy hearing about it. OK, here's the story....
My friend Lauri and I (she's 49, I'm 45....so we're pathetically old fan girlz) had the most fun day ever going to see Jeremy Renner at the Gallo Center in Modesto, even though our friends deemed us stalkers for driving that far! LOL!
First of all, I had no idea Modesto was so close. I live in Fremont, in the SF Bay Area. I thought Modesto was a few hours away, but it only took us an hour to get there. Generally Modesto is considered a real hole, but I must say that the downtown area is built up fairly well and is very cute. The Gallo Arts Center is gorgeous and brand new, totally state of the art. They have a lot of good events and concerts that come there and for very reasonable prices. Given how close it is, we may end up going back there in the future, Jeremy Renner or not.
Lauri and I arrived in Modesto at 3:00pm and the event wasn't until 7:00pm. It was a beautiful, sunny, nice day and we had tons of time to kill, so we drove around to get our bearings. For fun, we'd Google Mapped out Jeremy Renner's mom's house. OK, I know we sound like insane stalkers, but please read this:
www.modbee.com/2008/01/05/170967/actor-jeremy-renner-escapes-injury.html
There's a picture of his mom's house right there w/the name of her street. It's only two blocks long so it wasn't hard to find the right house. Not to disappoint you guys, but we drove by, took a picture and left. All in all, it was pretty boring and uneventful, but we did scream a little bit inside the car. Told you...pathetic!
Here's a pic we took from my car while parked a half block away.
www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7200164&l=67faebc46d&id=502758297
After we drove by his mom's house, we noticed a street fair going on a block or two away. We decided what the hell, we have time to kill. Let's stop by. Turns out, it was the Modesto Gay Pride Festival. Keep in mind, Lauri and I are from the Bay Area....one of the most gay-friendly, liberal places on earth. Modesto, however, and most of the central valley of CA is very conservative, so that really surprised us. Lauri and I thought that only WE could drive to Modesto and end up in a gay pride event. We wandered around and sat down to watch a show by a troupe of drag queens called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. We saw (no joke - I could NOT make this up) Mora Lee Declined, Bambi Dextrous, and Freddie Prinze Charming. Awesome...a totally hilarious bonus for our already excellent day.
By this time, it was close to 4pm, so we drove back to the performing arts center (5 minutes away), parked, and walked two blocks to dinner at a lovely little place called Harvest Moon Cafe. If you ever find yourself in Modesto, I highly recommend it. Then we saw this on a marquis and, because we are dorks, had to stop in the middle of the street to take a picture....
www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7200592&l=7c55ce21e6&id=502758297
After we were done eating and being lame, we went back and it was 5:30. We knew the doors opened at 6:30, so we scoped out the place, and shmoozed the ticket office guy. The entire event was general admission, but priced in three location tiers. He showed us a map of the different priced sections, and told us exactly where to wait and what door to enter to get the best possible seats. Then, we went over to the proper door and shmoozed the ticket taker ladies. We had a blast chatting w/them. Seriously, the entire city of Modesto is SO proud of this guy. Pretty much nobody makes it out of Modesto a success. The most famous person outside of Jeremy Renner is George Lucas. It's a real cow town, mostly. Everyone in town is excited to have him back there to talk about his career and his life growing up there.
Anyway, so Lauri and I were first in line to go in. Squeeeee! Showing up early had its advantages!
The doors are supposed to open to the public at 6:30. At 6:20, a pretty woman in her mid 30s walks up and stands directly next to us. We chat a bit, then they let her in. Who's she? Oh, she's Jeremy Renner's sister Kym! A few minutes later, two cute younger looking guys walk up and stand directly next to us. Who are they? Jeremy Renner's brothers! A few moments after that, we see his mother walk in. We recognized her from the Oscars. She and a few other friends or family members just standing there literally next to us, so a few of us in the front of the line chatted with her. Totally nice lady. Fun stuff, but darnit, we were hobnobbing with the incorrect Renners while, as I found out later, JR was around the corner in a different area of the lobby giving press interviews. ARGH!!!!!
Finally, we go in. Totally intimate theater. The arts center has two of them, so we're in the smaller one that seats about 500 people. We were in the third row, literally ten feet from the stage. His entire immediate family? Right in front of us! No photography allowed though. We were crushed. The worst part of the no photos rule is that we have no proof that we were there.
Finally, JR comes out, and he's dressed totally casual. You've seen the pics - I think the screen caps are posted here somewhere. He's wearing jeans, boots, a black and grey flannel shirt, and a lot of those really sexy masculine type rings and thin bracelets like Johnny Depp always wears. That's a weak spot of mine, especially since I'm very attracted to men's hands in general. Wooof! Oh man, what a FANTASTIC interview. It was very "Inside the Actor's Studio" and done by the director of the theater arts program at the local JC, where Jeremy Renner first discovered the acting bug at age 19. Basically, the interviewer had known him since he was 19 and directed him in his first couple of community college plays.
I'm putting the fact that I think the guy is totally hot aside. For someone who's star is rising so far, he is really a northern CA guy at heart. He's absolutely charming! Someone on here asked me what he is like in person. He was no less than ten feet away, I'd have to say he comes across as extremely sincere, affable, witty, and with a TON of awesome snark, SUPER intelligent, highly articulate and expressive, and seemingly completely humble and so level-headed. There's nothing about him the seems snobbish or entitled in any way, none of that crap that you would kind of expect from some Hollywood celebs out there. One of the things he talked about was how the paparazzi doesn't really bug him much, but the press does. He said they are really intrusive and lie a lot, or at least exaggerate a lot. We all know that, but it was interesting to hear a celeb tell it.
The best part though was when the interviewer guy asked him to sing a song. One of the reasons I like him so much is cuz he's an incredible singer. I'm a musician too, and I think he has raw talent. He could cut a record today under a phony name and people would buy it. You could tell he was REALLY uncomfortable and didn't want to just belt out a tune, but he did it. He sang the entire version of Billy Joel's NY State of Mind w/Brother Sal accompanying him on piano. Oh, and Brother Sal was his opening act....did I mention that? He's great too! Back to JR though.....seriously, his singing performance was flawless. No warmup, nothing. He just cranked it out, perfectly in pitch, just completely professional sounding. Lauri and I were pretty much swoony jello puddles by that point.
And then it was over.
We asked our usher friends if they could somehow get us into the private reception, but they said sorry, no. And again, no photography......so we got nuthin'. ( But what a memorable night. He's gonna become even more famous and someday win some overdue Oscars, I am positive of it....and I'll be very proud to say we saw him do that little interview for his beloved little hometown community!
One final note - all of this happened on Saturday, Sept 18 which incidentally was Yom Kippur. Both Lauri and I are Jewish. We spent the holiest day of our religion's year stalking Jeremy Renner in Modesto when we were supposed to be in synagogue and fasting all day. Whoooops! I just hope God forgives me, but it's Jeremy so SURE he will. LOL!