Getting to know MrCere

Kelvarhin: What is the most rewarding experience you have had and what made it so?

MrCere: This question is easy, assuming it was meant about TheOneRing.net and not life in general. Making friends, genuinely connecting with people, is the most rewarding aspect of being involved with TORn. This towers over everything else.

There have been some shockingly cool experiences, but you said “rewarding.”

Kelvarhin: What is your most memorable TORn experience and what is still on your wish list?

MrCere: I have been very, very lucky and had many memorable experiences. I have tried very hard to make those experiences, so they didn’t fall out of the sky and land on me, but, I fully recognise my good fortune.

The answer is: Being embedded for five weeks on The Hobbit during filming changed my DNA. I mean it. I suppose you want specifics from that but I am still hoping to be allowed to write about them and I signed NDAs that makes it so WB and the production will be legally allowed to eviscerate me and spread my remains to the four corners of the earth if I tell. I really, really, really want to share these with readers and am working on it. Promise.

To be honest, I thought there might be 10 questions about the embed but I know people have forgotten I even was there by now. (Kelvarhin: Anyone want to take a bet on that one?)

Kelvarhin: What big event haven’t you been to yet, and would love to attend?

MrCere: I want to sit in the editing room with Peter and Jabez as they lock picture for the final time for The Hobbit: There and Back Again. I also want to sit in the same room with the same guys when they finish the final edit of the final Extended Edition.

Also, I look forward to the day I have a world premiere for my own film.

Kelvarhin: If you could be any of the members of the Fellowship and the company of Dwarves, who would you be and why?

MrCere: I guess I would be Aragorn since he gets to kiss Liv Tyler, er, Arwen. It actually is easier for me to relate to being human so that narrows the choices down and then Boromir dies.

Kelvarhin: How were you introduced to Tolkien and his writings and the whole LOTR franchise?

MrCere: I read them very early on, I believe on a road trip from Utah to Missouri. I showed them to friends to read and their parents and my friends thought I was making it up that I had read them because I was so young. Long before I knew anybody liked them, I loved them. I was a bit ticked at Frodo in LOTR because I was so invested in Bilbo and wanted to read more about him but eventually accepted Frodo as a main character. I may still not be over that. Sam is the hero of the story — obviously.

I was also a passionate fan of Ralph Bakshi’s film and spent many fruitless hours scouring the racks of video stores (kids, those are like going to the Red Box for a rental, but you could step into the Red Box and browse titles) for the second half of the film. Obviously they made it because, who would make only half the story? I am still looking.

Kelvarhin: What was your favourite cartoon when you were a little tyke?

MrCere: I loved and love, cartoons. It is exceptionally hard to pick one because there were and are, many. Assuming this doesn’t mean pre-school years I liked everything from Battle of the Planets to Looney Tunes reruns, Tom and Jerry to Fractured Fairy Tales, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Thundar the Barbarian, The Super Friends and probably others I can’t recall off the top of my head. I think The Last Airbender cartoon, made recently, is right up there with the best story telling anywhere.

I think Americans have really weird and limited ideas about cartoons. The form is beautiful and amazing and should never be considered only for children.

Kelvarhin: What is your level of culinary skill, and what are your most favourite foods and the foods you most gagged upon?

MrCere: I love to cook and I hate to clean up. A good burrito is my go-to meal but I have a serious love for good spicy food. Given a choice when going out I often choose Indian food, delicious curries, Thai food, Mexican food or fresh and excellent seafood.

If we go out to eat together I will probably insist you try my food if I deem it worthy and if you give me an opening, I will sample everybody’s food while sharing my own.

Kelvarhin: What kind of music do you like?

MrCere: My favourite kind is good music. Bad music I like much less.

I tend to like complex rock music and hard rock. I get bored by empty lyrics and generally like to be able to be interested in both lyrics and music with a high level of musicianship. However, I really think we label music too much, which limits what we are open to. I find techno really appealing, some pop songs are perfect too. I appreciate classical music but listen to it much less often and admire those who passionately and authentically love it. I feel it is above my head.

Rich, smooth female vocals make me weak. If you put my iPod on random is plays a sometimes hilarious mix of things that don’t fit together. I tend to favor albums over songs and feel that singles are only the sugary desert while the rest of the album is the meat and potatoes of good works of art.

I was greatly relieved when Rush was put in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if that tells you anything.

Bands I listen to most in no particular order: Dream Theater, Tool, Coheed & Cambria, Rush, Scorpions, Metallica, Chris Cornell, Extreme, Coldplay, Days of the New, Sarah McLachlan, Faith No More, Gregorian chant music, Wolfmother, Muse and I will stop because this is getting absurd. In my opinion if you don’t like those bands it means you don’t actually know those bands well enough.

I worked concert security for a long time so I have seen a sick number of bands live.

Oh, plus I like New Age music like Mike Oldfield and Enigma. Slide guitar with twangy vocals means that country music is my own personal waterboarding.

Kelvarhin: What is the story behind your avatar on TORn? And why did you choose it?

MrCere: Well, when the internet ran on hamster wheels and AOL was the wheel, I liked a cartoon aardvark named “Cerebus” drawn and written by Dave Sim. I am a boy person and chose MrCere as my nickname and have used it since. I use pictures of Cerebus here and there.

Kelvarhin: What would you rather have: A lightsaber, a palantir or a cloak of invisibility?

MrCere: Palantir’s are pretty limited and one can’t really use a lightsaber routinely so I will take a cloak of invisibility, which for the record, has been around in D&D circles long before there was any Harry Potter.

Kelvarhin: What would be your cosplay of choice?

MrCere: My only real experience was dressing as one of the complete Bakshi’s Fellowship and I was Boromir with a skirt, hair shirt and horny helmet. The whole troop was absolutely EPIC even if people thought I was a Viking and wondered why I was standing near Gandalf. If you mean favourite to look at, there is an entirely different answer.

Kelvarhin: Have you ever interviewed someone, where the interview just wasn’t working?

MrCere: Yes. I managed to get a quick few minutes with Felicia Day at a Comic-Con one year (because I thought she was really going to be something, so I get credit for that!) to talk about Tolkien and fantasy and reading and I had some approaches in mind and I really was in a hurry and she was and I blew it. Fail. Also, I had Stan Lee on a live broadcast once and he corrected my pronunciation of a word (which didn’t bother me and was funny and added to the event) and then we were meant to bring out another partner of his. This happened but no matter who you bring with Stan Lee, everybody wants to hear Stan Lee. So, I asked them a couple of questions to get the new quy clicked in. Stan thought that was all I needed from him so he encouraged us to keep talking and left. All the air left the building; The live audience and on-site audience were all about Stan. I felt naked and awkward and I had saved the best Stan questions for the end so he only got the fluffy, but audience pleasing stuff. It wasn’t anything like a disaster, but it was far less than I hoped.

Kelvarhin: Do you have a favourite person you’ve interviewed? (And who’s your least favourite?)

MrCere: A single favourite is hard but I interviewed comic book writer and artist Frank Miller when I was pretty green and his work had a big impact on my early life so it was pretty amazing and he wasn’t rushed at all. It is the only time I have ever or will ever ask for an autograph but he signed some prized books for me. Also Matthias Jabs, a guitarist for Scorpions, also a big deal to me, and he was on a bus heading to Salt Lake City, so he was in the deserts of Utah with sketchy cell coverage. His phone went out and I thought it was over but he called back — THREE TIMES — which was beyond all comprehension, like he forgot he was a rock star. Metallica’s Kirk Hammett (another guitarist) and I had a fascinating phone conversation while he drove to a concert in L.A., much better than the small article I was allowed to write. But finally, a movie director I cannot name at the moment spent an hour with me on his movie set and I asked all “the questions” I wanted to ask, thinking I would only get one or two, maybe three. That amount of time, considering the context, was pretty humbling and might be the number one. Least favourite? I want another crack at Felicia Day (who really is something now) in a better setting and there is one guy who twice was an authentic jerk that shall never be named. But but only one jerk!

Kelvarhin: If you could choose any people in the world, living or dead, who would be on your dream dinner party guest list?

MrCere: Well you didn’t cap the number so that leaves me a lot of leeway! I picture a big long table, but not too big to ruin conversation, and I will take J.R.R. Tolkien and seat him by George R.R. Martin and Jane Austin. George Washington would be there with the ultimate American politician, Abraham Lincoln. If we can eliminate the language barrier please seat Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie. Jesus Christ will be there with Adolph Hitler and I feel like this is badly answered and on top of that, either might completely overwhelm the whole event. Since its my list I would include some beautiful people that I shall keep to myself. We would of course play silly party games and get-to-know-you games to break the ice. Then, four or six people in my real life to help me wrap my head around it all later and to catch what I missed.

Wow, I want this to happen now! (Kelvarhin: Me too!)

Kelvarhin: From what you know, do you think fans will be happier with DoS and TABA, than they were over AUJ?

MrCere: I am completely compromised on these films. Good or bad, my vantage point can’t be separated from the process. That is a bad answer so, I suspect book lovers who aren’t casual with adaptation might have some tough things ahead to swallow. Movie-centric viewers are past the table-setting so I think yes. And I know, still a bad answer. I encourage everybody to see the film and decide for themselves!

Kelvarhin: I don’t think that was a bad answer MrC, I asked for your opinion and that’s what you’ve given 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, it’s always a pleasure chatting with you.

As always a big thank you to all our message board regulars, DanielLB, Ataahua, Brethil, Lothwen, Ziggy Stardust, dernwyn, grammaboodawg and Rosie-with-the-ribbons, and Staffers, Demosthenes, Elessar and Justin for our questions this month.

If you would like to ask any questions yourself, just head over to our Message Boards, the sign up process is pretty painless. A lead post for questions is made at the beginning of each month on the Main board. Or from next month, you can check out the Frontpage for each months interviewee and email me your questions at kelvarhin@theonering.net.

Till next time from TORn’s resident Tiger.

Kelvarhin

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