We're all geeks

In his book, "Lucky Wander Boy," D.B. Weiss says that a geek is someone who "loves something more than the fear and respect and desire of his fellow men and women."\nGeeks see the beauty in that which they obsess over. Get them talking about their passions and they will give you a perspective that you could never conceive.\nAnd the most beautiful part is that we're all geeks.\nWith that in mind, I have to admit something that I've been chastised for, something that I've been ridiculed for. But it's something that brings me no shame. So I'm here to stand up and proudly say:\nSigh…\n"I am a huge Oasis fan."\nThere. I said it.\nBack in 1997, my friend Rob had an extra ticket to an Oasis show in Chicago, so I went on a whim, not knowing too much about the band but enough to get me by. I didn't own any of their albums. I knew a couple of songs and that's about it.\nI walked into that show as a boy … and I came out a man. And thus I was effectively accelerated through puberty so much that when I came back, my mom freaked out like the mom did in "Big" when Tom Hanks came home and tried to convince her that he was still her son.\nI didn't even know it was possible for a band to be so crass and cocky, yet so joyous at the same time. I immediately ran out and bought their whole catalog and within weeks became obsessed. I felt like I was catching up to something truly great.\nAnd then it happened.\nOasis wasn't cool anymore. They were torn apart by the American press and consumers alike. While they maintained their popularity in England, they were tossed aside over here. It's not campy or kitschy to like Oasis; it's just viewed as downright odd. If you wear an Oasis shirt, people look at you as if you as if you are dressed like a pilgrim.\nYet Oasis is still making albums, still touring and has a loyal, albeit small, American fan base that is right up there with Phisheads.\nWhy?\n"They're the perfect mix between Johnny Rotten and John Lennon," says professor Glenn Gass, who teaches the Beatles class and is a self-proclaimed proud Oasis fan. "They are unashamed to embrace the Beatles and that's no worse than the Rolling Stones embracing American blues."\nGass speaks with the vocabulary of a music geek -- a joy many of us know all too well.\nIt can be "Star Trek" or the Chicago Cubs. It can be the Beatles or a sports car. It can be shopping for shoes or it can be Oasis.\nEveryone is a geek.\nCelebrate your geeky side. If you love baseball, explain the infield fly rule to a clueless pal. If you love shopping, take your fashionably challenged friend to the mall and make them over. If you love the "Golden Girls," then make your friends watch it, too.\nStand up and scream your obsession to the skies. Rejoice in your rare fixations. Wear your geekhood on your sleeve.\nTurn people on.\nAs for me, I'll still be playing "Slide Away," "Fade-In-Out," "Talk Tonight," and "Songbird" for any willing ears.