To put my fandom in perspective I arguably got interested in Japanese partly because of Nomiya Maki. Back when I lived in the Bay Area in 93−95, just about the time I starte studying, Live 105 was playing her song with Pizzicato Five, "Twiggy Twiggy" which I instantly liked.

I proceeded to find all the Pizzicato Five music I could find. That's a lot of music because they've released something like 75 CDs. Sometimes I would study the lyrics. I got laughed at by a co−worker for liking their music. She thought it was "those weird Japanese".

I saw them in concert at the El Rey in Los Angeles. I saw them at the Tokyo International Forum in Japan. They spit up sometime around 2001 but I continued to buy and enjoy Nomiya Maki's next 3 solo albums.

I even saw her perform not more than 2 people in front of me at some club where her and Verbal from m−flo showed up unannounced and performed two songs live and I happened to be standing next to the area they decided to perform from.

I've got 63 CDs in my collection, Pizzicato Five is/was clearly one of the most favorite bands of my life. If there's a short list of the bands I've listened to the most P5 is in the top 5.

But then in 2013 I got invited to an event she was going to be performing at. It turned out to be a really small event. I think less than 100 people were there. So, took my chance, during a lull, walked up and said hi, said I was a fan, that I had learned Japanese partly inspired by her music and asked if it was okay if I took a picture (she had just posed for another).

And, She seemed not very nice. At the time I didn't think about it much. I guess I kind of expect stars to be annoyed by fans. But now, every time I hear one of her songs now I can't help remember how unfriendly she seemed which makes me not like hearing the songs anymore.

That's like 19 years of fandom and happiness turned into disappointment and displeasure in literally a moment.

..sigh.. 😎