Tuesday, October 19, 2010

WTF Does that name mean anyway?

So...for those of you that have perhaps wondered how the hell I came to be known as "The Bear Monk", here's how the story goes.

Let me start by saying that I love love love, live music.  I fucking love it.  The press of the crowd.  The adrenaline rush of throwing crowd surfers at the security guards (yeah I'm a big guy).  And of course the music.  When a band is good live I will buy their albums and I will go to see them again.

The Translator and I have traveled 7 hours to see concerts before and I'm sure we'll do it again.

So every year, my favorite band, Flogging Molly, does a tour called the Green 17 Tour.  They always end it on St. Paddy's day and the shows are always amazing.  We've seen them like 5 or 6 times now and we have every intention of going again this February/March.

I guess it was 2 years ago, we saw the show in New Orleans at the House of Blues.

Side note:  I think the House of Blues in New Orleans, LA is my favorite venue.  It's pretty small and so even super loud shows can still be really intimate and you get to be really close to the band.  All in all I've always had a great time at HoB.

Anyway...we get to shows super early.  Like hours early, so that we can get right on that guard rail to see the band.  You see...the Translator is approximately 5 foot nothing, so it's important for us to get a good spot so that she can have a chance to see the show at all.

As part of the show, Flogging Molly will kind of do the whole "How many Irishmen do we have in the audience tonight?"  In my mind I know that in their mind everyone is "Irish" at one of their shows, but with my logical brain I didn't join in the cheering.  Technically speaking I am of a mostly German heritage.  So the lead singer, David King, notices that I'm not cheering.  And he says to me:

"If you're not Irish I don't know what the fuck you are.  Maybe some kind of Bear Monk or something?  And that can't be all bad!"

The crowd cheered and honestly...I kind of loved the idea anyway.

After all, I looked like this:

Don't we look super fuckin' happy?

So the following year, last February actually, we went to see Flogging Molly in Houston (we've recently moved to Texas), and low and behold there were a couple of guys I recognized and by God they remembered me too.  And of course they remembered me as the "Bear Monk" and told me how they'd told stories about me in the intervening time.
Me, David King, and my buddy Casey

Not long after that, I decided to start this blog and that just seemed like the name to go by.

QOTD:  How'd you come up with your blog handle?  Anyone else into live music?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha I love that story! And that is so awesome that he remembered you, considering he sees like a bizillion fans every day. But then again, who could forget a bear monk?

CkretsGalore said...

I was creative and a teen and came up with Ckret (for those who can't seem to figure it out, it's pronounce Secret) when I was IRC chatting. Then I was CkretGirl, CkretSweetE (Gag* I know but I was looking for online love ok?!) and now I just roll with CkretsGalore. Not nearly as fucking cool as Bear Monk. Love it.

I also love live music and all sorts of shows from big to small. I'm really not that fussy but I don't dig the country.

niassne said...

My wife and I started yelling out ASS! every time we passed donkeys. In North MS there are lots of places that raise and sell donkeys and mules so when we were visiting family we'd do it a LOT. One day she was a little miffed at me (frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often personally), and we passed a field containing a donkey. She said ASS so distinctly condescendingly it was clear the double intention which made us both laugh. Since then I've simply been The Ass.

Weeks (months) later I'm thinking about word puzzles and how people contrive them. At the time visual word puzzles were featured in the Sunday paper insert (Parade or the like). Often the positioning of two words would create a third word. I wanted something that contained ASS and I came up with ASS in NINE or NIassNE. Since much of what I say is pretty asinine it really fit me both because I'm an ASS and often pretty ASININE. I've stuck with it since creating user accounts and even a website.

Sara said...

First of all to Ckrets -- WHAT THE FUCK HOW HAD I NOT FIGURED THAT OUT YET

And to Bear Monk - That story is fabulous and YAY pictures! : )

CkretsGalore said...

Hahah Holy Crap Sara...I guess I gave you more credit than due. ;)

Oh and I also second that...YAY Pictures!

PS my captcha is NocCest. Well I found it amusing as it seems the opposite of something dirty.

Cristian0 said...

thats a funny story.. Who is the Translator? Why do you need a translator? they sing in irish?

Unknown said...

I refer to the wife as the Translator here, as she's generally the person who translates the babbling I do when I try to explain what it is I do for a living.

Cristian0 said...

developer [de-vel-op-er] -noun:
An organism that turns caffeine into code.

You can leave the wife at home now ;)

Unknown said...

LOL...That's good. I'm tellin' you man, I mention the word code to some of the people in her family and my own and it's like I can actually see their brain shutting down and their ears shriveling up. And then the wife tells them what I'm saying and the conversation magically reappears.

Sadako said...

Great story. Mine is called Dibbly Fresh and it's a turn of phrase from the esteemed literary tome that is...the Babysitters Club series. I used to blog pretty much just on the BSC but now I do all kinds of things. I love finding out why people come up with their blog names.