
Desiré Maurice Ferrary (1852–1904)
Lady Lever Art Gallery
I go on my walk – there are a lot of helicopters around because of the airshow – Vietnam era ones I know the names of from when I was a kid – a couple big Chinooks and a bunch of Cobras flying in loose formation, buzzing the city, sweeping overhead as I trudge down the sidewalk and see a woman just standing there, holding her groceries, staring up in the sky Why is it doing that? hovering directly over her house I don’t know I say I just hope they don’t drop anything I pass her but the helicopter’s following me now, staying right above, matching my pace all the way down the block, turning with me into the park – I stop under a tree but it stays, suspended, moving slightly when I step out and start taking pictures of it as it hangs there, playful yet menacing and there’s a sense of panic and the only reason I don’t run is because I think that must be what he wants, that guy in there, to chase someone trying to get away – I get the photo I want and it suddenly wheels and chops away…
Dr. Paul Curtain had a theory about the sex lives of his students. Against the pressures of the school officials, he conducted a sex survey that probed the inner depths of the students’ repressed desires. His mania for fact sent him to the brink of depravity…and a house that was a modern Babylon!
[1961]