Erin Barker’s baseball cards.

Alvin in 1969 during Yale Summer High School in New Haven on a field trip to the Newport Jazz Festival.

Paul Teodo, at the time of the incident in the story.

“This family picture was taken right around the time my uncle Mike handcuffed me to the radiator. You can probably figure out which person I am. The little kid who looks pissed off. Uncle Mike is right in front of me dark guy with the glasses." -Paul

Sam wearing a school girl uniform in his favorite picture from “a crazy time.”

Sam Thurman in Japan.

We asked Sam how he ended up at the festival he describes in his story. He wrote:

I was in Japan studying abroad at the Osaka University of Art, a large and not-so-prestigious art school in the Japanese countryside. I didn’t know any Japanese, and suffered from moderate social anxiety, so I spent the first half of the semester sitting in my tiny apartment microwaving instant noodles.

After a month or so I met Chris, a punk rocker from Hong Kong. He was trilingual (Cantonese, English, Japanese) and always had a large backpack that made him look like an anarchist turtle. Chris always said yes to everything. Do you want to stay out all night getting drunk in the red light district? Yes. Do you want to go to a dance battle in a stranger’s apartment in America town? Yes. Do you want to see what a Japanese orgy looks like? Yes.

After a while I started saying yes too (no orgies for me though). And when Chris asked me if I wanted to go on a road trip with him and a grungy hippie girl named Moi I said yes. That’s how I wound up at the Fuji Rock Festival.

Ameera’s letter from Iggy Pop.

Ameera’s review of Iggy Pop’s album.