Fanboy

I just ran across an amusing column about how to be a fanboy. First of all, the writer says you don't need to be a boy to be a fanboy. In fact, you don't even need to be male. But "fangirl" just doesn't have the same ring as "fanboy." Thus we're stuck with the term fanboy.

As amusing as the column was, I had an issue with it. You see, I've been a fanboy for nearly as long as I could read. It started off with comic books. From the moment I read my first comic book at the age of 6, I became a fan of comics. That would make me a comic book fan when I was a mere boy or a fan boy. Get it? But this joker ...er writer narrowly defines a fanboy as a videogame console fanatic of any gender or age. Hmm... sounds PC enough, but I almost take offense to the author claiming the term for just for videogame console fanatics. Since I have faith that the truth must exist somewhere on the Internet, I investigated further and found fanboy.com. This sagely site implies that fanboys are cultural fanatics of any gender or age, not merely videogame console fanatics. My faith in the Internet to tell the truth was instantly restored.

So all the above useless, trivial line of thought got me started on another pointless, trivial line of thought; Am I still a fanboy today? And if so, what am I a fanboy of?

That burning question is fairly fun to answer. We can start with the picture on the left taken on my camera phone last Friday at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. This was taken moments before the jazz supergroup, SFJazz Allstars began performing. A friend gave me her extra ticket at the last minute, so I had no idea who was in this super group of jazz all stars. I was extremely excited to find out my favorite contemporary trumpet player, Dave Douglas had recently joined this group. I have seen my share of live jazz in Asia, but seeing these guys perform was like watching professional NBA players versus kids at the playground I've been seeing. Aside from each musician being accomplished jazz band leaders and composers, they checked their egos at the door and meshed so well together. It was quite possibly the best jazz concert I have ever attended. But I digress.

Back to the topic of fanboys. It's pretty well known to my friends that I'm a huge fan of jazz. But that doesn't necessarily make me a jazz fanboy. During the meet and greet at the end of the concert I unabashedly told Dave Douglas I was a "big, big fan." I would say that was a fanboyish moment. So the nature of being a fanboy seems to apply to something more specific than an industry (such as jazz or videogames), but perhaps a specific object (such as a videogame console) or person (such as a jazz musician).

If I apply my definition of fanboy, then I could make a list of many people and things ranging from directors, musicians, authors, cinematographers, designers and yes, even a few politicians and spiritual leaders whom I admire. Perhaps cultureboy would be a better term for me than fanboy. But that might bring up visions of diseased experiments or the 80's Boy George group, Culture Club. So I guess I'll just have to stick to being a fanboy.