CHECKPOINT DREAMYOURTOPIA                   - A Border Control Checkpoint to Enter Your Own Dreams -      VistorQuotes - Burning Man 2008   Thank you very much for making Checkpoint DreamYourTopia. It really moved me, and before I visited (on Thursday?) I had not really connected with the American Dream theme. I didn't get a passport because I had a strange moving experience while filling out the form. I realized that I did not want my dream. Operating from the definition of dream as "a story I tell you I want to be true", I had this idea that our dreams are tragically flawed because they are products of our selves, which I also believe are tragically flawed. Reality is more perfect, surprising, and satisfying than our dream might ever be. For example, in my wildest dreams, I could not have imagines burning man and all of it's amazingness; the reality is so much more shocking and wonderful! That's just one thought. I regret not finishing the passport application process, but you changed my burn, and provoked ideas, which was worth it. I'd been reading your blog in advance of the Burn, and was ecstatic to encounter your Dream in person! Clearly there were much sweat, love, and dreams that went into the building of DreamYourTopia, and I wanted to make sure to let you know that your efforts did not go without a deep level of appreciation :) Your creation was by far the MOST interactive and participatory project I have encountered in my meager few Burns. I cherish my passport, pictures, and memories of my encounter with your exhibit, and tried to convince several of my campmates that they were missing out until they'd paid a visit to your camp. My question to you: Will you bring the Dream back to BRC in 2009?? ...please? ------------ this was positively the shittiest installation I've ever visited in all my visits to the playa. oh sure, the passport that I never got looked pretty and all. good job, bitches. the beef I have is with the dude bro who was on dudie that night. this cow behind me starts shit for no reason other than the fact that she was a self hater, and then starts crying to the dude bro, as if we're in kindergarten. then with no information to go on he sided with her and tried to reprimand me by getting up in my face with his magaphone...why? because I have a penis. I truly hope your sharty poop shoot of a dream moops up the playa next year so I can take a dump on it. ------------- HELLO Checkpoint DreamYourTopia! Greetings from the D.L.A.! (Dream Liberation Army!) We came upon your beautiful and thought provoking art piece one night as innocent immigrants, looking for an opportunity to live our dreams. Instead, we were brought in and prosecuted! Forced to fill out every ridiculous question on your forms! When one of our clan completed the sheet she was still denied after being brought into your interrogation room! We decided that we must take matters into out own hands! This is America! People are fighting and dying everyday to protect our Freedom and our way of life! Who are you to tell us that we cannot enter DreamYourTopia?! So we rallied some troops and sent a spy in to scope out the situation. She notified us when she passed through your security and then BAM! we stormed your gates! We tried to keep collateral damage low, but you know how that goes. I must say, we did not anticipate such heavy resistance! Your guards were strong, but our weapons managed to get us in to shout "YOU ARE FREE TO DREAM! THIS IS AMERICA! YOU DON"T HAVE TO HAVE THEIR PERMISSION!" It is unfortunate that such violence resulted;) But let me make our message to you clear:Thank you for being good sports and giving us something so moving that it prompted us to "go to battle!"   Dreamyourtopia was one of the highlights of our Burn. Amazing!! We stumbled across it on what was probably the first night it was open (Sat or Sunday), as work was still going on around us inside the compound. Not knowing exactly what it was, and having heard that there was a camp giving out free waterboarding experiences (!) we walked up and asked if this was where we got the free waterboarding. I think that was perhaps the first true test of the staff's poker faces...the bunny guy wants to be waterboarded... Laughing ! We were given applications, which were simultaneously hilarious, sinister, and thought provoking. It took us about 10 min. to completely fill out the form/s, and another 5 mins or so of interrogation before we were finally issued visitor's visas/passports and script--coolest keepsakes I've ever been gifted at the burn--and allowed through. sigh of relief... the promised dreamland is at hand!). Our time at the bar was stellar. It was like a mini decompression in itself. Absolutely incredible. As the week went by, it was great to hear the stories of our campmates who found the checkpoint on their own. One group was standing in line about to receive their applications when a woman behind them ("staff" perhaps?) leaned in and whispered: "You people are too nice. I am going to tell the authorities that you are terrorists!!" My friend Shari was scared.... but then she concocted a plan... when they got to the front of the line she told the guard that the woman behind her was bragging that she was a drug mule, was carrying top-grade Afghani/00, and should be given a cavity search ASAP! Shocked THANK YOU ALL FOR AN EPIC, ENTERTAINING, THOUGHT/DREAM PROVOKING EXPERIENCE!! -------------------- The Checkpoint was one of my favorite installations. I got my passport Monday night/Tuesday morning after the dust storm when you all were still working. I came back Friday with my new gal. Two people said "fuck this!" and stomped off while she was doing the paperwork. When she got it finished I stepped up with my passport and a Clif bar. "I am sponsoring this young lady. I already have a passport." As soon as the guard finished eating we bypassed the whole line (he did make her draw a self portrait.) Personally I am trying to put the same answers in the physical and dream world parts of the form so I say "Mr. Dadara, Tear down this wall." I now have to go hang my head in shame for paraphrasing Reagan.