The sexual underground in Berlin and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s

In a filmed interview with Richard Leacock in the 1970s, Louise Brooks spoke of the rather wild nightlife she witnessed in Berlin while she was there filming Pandora's Box in late 1928. Brooks' experience in Berlin - she was there twice, once while filming Pandora's Box and a few months later while filming Diary of a Lost Girl, are detailed as well in Barry Paris' outstanding biography of the actress -- so is her experience in Paris while filming Prix de beaute (1930).

Two books, one a new release, focus on the wild nightlife and sexual underground of Berlin and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. I have both books, as well as a couple of others by the author, Mel Gordon. (Especially fascinating is his The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber.) Each are recommended for those interested.

Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin, by Mel Gordon

From the publisher: When Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin first appeared in the fall of 2000, it inspired wide acclaim and multiple printings.

This sourcebook of hundreds of rare visual delights from the pre-Nazi, Cabaret-period “Babylon on the Spree” has the distinction of being praised both by scholars and avatars of contemporary culture, inspiring performers, filmmakers, historians straight and gay, designers, and musicians like the Dresden Dolls and Marilyn Manson.

Voluptuous Panic’s expanded edition includes the new illustrated chapter “Sex Magic and the Occult,” documenting German pagan cults and their bizarre erotic rituals, including instructions for entering into the “Sexual Fourth Dimension.” The deluxe hardcover edition also includes sensational accounts of hypno-erotic cabaret acts, Berlin fetish prostitution (“The Boot Girl Visit”), gay life (“A Wild-Boy Initiation!”), descriptions and illustrations of Aleister Crowley’s Berlin OTO secret society, and sex crime (“The Curious Career and Untimely Death of Fritz Ulbrich”).

Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946, by Mel Gordon

From the publisher: Mel Gordon presents a companion volume to his highly praised pictorial history Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin.

Mel Gordon, author of Voluptuous Panic, the celebrated history about the sex culture of Weimar Berlin, returns with a stunningly illustrated look at Paris, The City of Pleasure, prior to and during German occupation during World War II.

Horizontal Collaboration encompasses the Jazz Age, Depression, World War and Occupation, and Liberation. It concludes with the shuttering of the licensed brothels in 1946, which some Parisian intellectuals thought was the final “destruction of French civilization”.

The term “Horizontal Collaboration” refers to the sexual liaisons between French civilians and German occupiers from 1940 to 1944. These were extremely widespread and included both individual wartime relationships in addition to prostitution. As Allied armies swept across the French countryside, thousands of young women—and some men—were savagely punished by the authorities or by vigilante crowds, becoming a source of deep national shame.

Author Gordon redefines the pejorative term to mean something much broader: French men and women “horizontally collaborated” to overcome all social obstacles, divisions, and regulations. These obstacles include married and unmarried couples, straights and homosexuals, foreigners and locals, gun-toting soldiers and their vanquished subjects. The natural yearning for sexual pleasure equally corrupted all co-habitating partners.

The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Depravity, by Mel Gordon

From the publisher: The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber is the first contemporary biography of the notorious actor/dancer/poet/playwright who scandalized sex-obsessed Weimar Berlin during the 1920s.

In an era where everything was permitted, Anita Berber’s celebrations of “Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy” were condemned and censored. She often haunted Weimar Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs, and casinos, radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine.

Multi-talented Anita saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances. As such, she was Europe’s first postmodern woman. After sated Berliners finally tired of Anita Berber’s libidinous antics, she became a “carrion soul that even the hyenas ignored,” dying in 1928 at the age of twenty-nine.

• Includes nearly two hundred photographs and illustrations, including some that recreate Berber’s salacious and enduring “Repertoire of the Damned.”
• Berber was a lover of Marlene Dietrich and influenced and associated with Leni Riefenstahl, Lawrence Durrell, Klaus Mann, and the founder of modern sexology, Magnus Hirschfeld.
• An early movie star, Berber acted in Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler and the silent epic Lucifer. [ Berber also starred in Dida Ibsens Geschichte, the 1918 sequel to the the originial filmed adaption of Diary of a Lost Girl. ]


Mel Gordon is Professor of Theater Arts at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of twelve books, including The Grand Guignol, Dada Performance, The Stanislavsky Technique, and the Feral House title Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant.

Pandora's Box starring Louise Brooks screens in Brooklyn

Pandora's Box, the G.W. Pabst directed film starring Louise Brooks, will be shown at the Brooklyn Public Library on Sunday, November 8.

The screening is free, and is part of a series of silent film screenings at the library curated and hosted by Ken Gordon. More information may be found HERE.

This special screening of the 1929 film coincides with the William Kentridge staging of the 1937 Alban Berg opera, Lulu, at the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan on various dates during the month of November.

The film and the opera are both based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904).

The screening, with live piano accompaniment by Bernie Anderson, will take place at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11238, which is at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway.

Although the branch does not open until 1:00 pm, a side-door, on Eastern Parkway, will open at 12:00 noon, to allow entry to the Dweck Center Auditorium, where introductions will begin at 12:30 pm, and the film soon after.

Louise Brooks' birthday takes place on November 14th. Why not attend this special event to celebrate?

Lulu-mania sweeps NYC

reprinted from Huffington Post:

Lulumania is sweeping New York, And Lulu, it seems, is everywhere.

Frank Wedekind's legendary femme fatale, who's beguiling behavior inspired nearly as many artists as Helen of Troy's beauty launched ships, can be found all over New York City.

Alban Berg's modernist opera, Lulu, which was based on Wedekind's two "Lulu" plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904), has just opened a month-long run at the Metropolitan Opera. This new production stars the soprano Marlis Petersen and is directed by the South African artist William Kentridge, who's dynamic art for the staging of the opera proves as seductive and active as Lulu herself. The Met's new production of Lulu runs through December 3. On November 21, Lulu will be live streamed to theaters across the United States.

Meanwhile, across town, the Marion Goodman Gallery is showing "William Kentridge: Drawings for Lulu." This exhibit presents the original 67 Kentridge drawings used in the opera. Anyone who sees Lulu, who appreciates Kentridge's art, or who is inclined toward German Expressionism will want to see and study this must-not-miss show. (Bravo to the Marion Goodman Gallery website which so brilliantly displays this brilliant work.) "William Kentridge: Drawings for Lulu" is on display through December 19th.


Kentridge's Lulu at Marion Goodman Gallery
PHOTO: Marion Goodman Gallery
Also on display at the Marion Goodman Gallery is a suite of four related linocut prints by Kentridge, as well as a new fine press edition of the Lulu plays which utilizes Kentridge's art. The book is from the San Francisco-based Arion Press, which has just released its edition of Wedekind's The Lulu Plays featuring the 67 Kentridge drawings (printed by four-color offset lithography) bound into the book.

 Kentridge's Lulu at Marion Goodman Gallery
PHOTO: Marion Goodman Gallery

The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is a fine achievement. Four-hundred copies of this limited edition artist's book were printed by letterpress on luxurious creamy paper utilizing period type in fittingly black and red inks. The book, which is hand bound and comes in a slipcase, can be seen and no-doubt fondled at the Arion Press booth at the IFPDA Print Fair at the Park Avenue Armory through November 8.


Louise Brooks as Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora's Box.
PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
It is on November 8 that a free screening of the 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks -- the greatest Lulu of them all, will take place at Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The sensational G.W. Pabst directed film was drawn from the Wedekind play, and in turn contributed to Berg's realization of his opera (composed from 1929-1935, premiered incomplete in 1937) just a few years later.

If you are looking for a little background on Kentridge's art and its use in the new production of Berg's opera, as well as the Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays, check out this video of a recent onstage conversation between Kentridge and Arion publisher Andrew Hoyem which took place last month at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Those in upstate New York who can't make it to NYC can look forward to seeing some of this work in the future. The newly renamed George Eastman Museum in Rochester recently announced that Kentridge has given the definitive collection of his archive and art -- including films, videos and digital works, as well as his work for Lulu -- to the museum. Founded in the 1940s, the museum has one of the world's largest and oldest photography and film collections. And as fans of the actress well know, it was also the longtime home of Louise Brooks.

Diary of a Lost Girl screens in the UK

Diary of a Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown in Newnham, UK on Friday, November 6th at 7 pm -- with live musical accompaniment by Wurlitza. This should be fun. Check it out if you live in the area.

Lulu Forever

Although she died countless times on stage and on film, Lulu still lives. Frank Wedekind's immortal character -- the great femme fatale of the 20th century -- first appeared in his once controversial, now celebrated "Lulu" plays, Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box, 1904).

In the years that followed, Lulu was reborn in other art. Wedekind's plays were the basis for two great silent films in the 1920s, as well as Alban Berg's masterful opera of the 1930s. The plays and their stage performances, the films, and the opera all influenced one another. It is known, for example, that Berg saw G.W. Pabst's 1929 film Pandora's Box while composing his great modernist opera, as did his great champion and correspondent Theodor Adorno, who wrote that he was profoundly affected by Lulu.

There have been other later film adaptions, poems, paintings and drawings, comic books, and even erotica inspired by the character of Lulu, as well as a few rock and pop recordings like Rufus Wainwright's All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010) and the Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration Lulu (2011).

Her origins remain obscure. Did Wedekind base the character on Lou Andreas-Salomé and his own frustrated relationship with the vivacious intellectual (who preferred the company of Nietzsche, Freud, and Rilke)? Or did Wedekind base Lulu on his mother, a one-time showgirl in Gold Rush San Francisco? She married Wedekind's father, an older and respectable professional, not unlike Dr. Schön in the plays.

Or, was Wedekind -- a rogue in his youth -- smitten with Lulu, a popular circus performer in Paris in the 1890s? We do know that Wedekind was inspired by the circus as well as Félicien Champsaur's 1888 circus pantomime, Lulu. In the prologue to Earth Spirit, the characters are introduced by an Animal Tamer as if they are creatures in a traveling circus. Lulu herself is described as "the true animal, the wild, beautiful animal" and the "primal form of woman."

Over the years, actresses from Eva Gabor to Judy Davis have played Lulu on stage and in film, while many others have sung the role in opera. Here is a shortlist of six great, memorable Lulus. Each has shaped the way we see the character today.


Marlis Petersen as Lulu.
PHOTO: Kristian Schuller/Metropolitan Opera
Marlis Petersen: It would be something of an understatement to say there is great anticipation around the new production of Alban Berg's Lulu that opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The excitement building over this new Lulu stems not just from the fact that artist William Kentridge is behind the staging of this modernist masterpiece, but that Marlis Peterson will be singing the role of Lulu. The riveting German soprano (a blonde who sports a dark bob à la Louise Brooks) is appearing in her 10th and just announced final production of the opera. As an interpreter of Lulu, few have made the role so much their own. No wonder Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, calls her "the leading Lulu of the day." Lulu opens at the Metropolitan Opera on November 5 and continues through December 3. On November 21, Lulu will be live streamed to theaters across the United States.


Louise Brooks as Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora's Box.
PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Louise Brooks: The best known Lulu may well be Louise Brooks, the bobbed-hair, Kansas-born silent film star called to Germany to play Lulu in the G.W. Pabst directed film, Pandora's Box. Movie-goers at the time were dismayed. They asked, how could an American play what was an especially German character? Though she claimed not to know what it was all about, or even to have read Wedekind's text until years later, Brooks so convincingly inhabits the character of Lulu that any actress or singer playing the role is hard pressed to ignore her. In a recent piece, critic Graham Fuller suggests that Brooks the actress and not Pabst the director is the film's real auteur. It's not a new notion, but still a provocative one. A free screening of Pandora's Box will take place on November 8th at Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.


Asta Nielsen in 1913, as Lulu in 1923, and turned from the camera in 1930.
PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Asta Nielsen: The first film Lulu was Asta Nielsen, the great Danish actress, who played Lulu in Earth Spirit (1923). One of the early international movie stars, she was noted for her large dark eyes, mask-like face, and androgynous figure. (Famously, she played Hamlet in 1921.) About her, the French poet Apollinaire once exclaimed, "She is everything! She is the drunkard's vision and the lonely man's dream." Be that as it may, Nielsen often and movingly portrayed strong-willed, passionate women trapped by tragic consequences. Due to the erotic nature of her performances, Nielsen's films were censored in the United States, and her work to this day remains obscure to American audiences.


Tilly Newes and Frank Wedekind in Pandora's Box. Tilly Wedekind as Lulu in Earth Spirit. PHOTO: Louise Brooks Society
Tilly Newes: The second actress to play the role on stage was Tilly Newes. Pandora's Box was first staged in Nuremberg in 1904, but was banned by the German censor. Austrian writer Karl Kraus produced a private performance in Vienna the following year, and cast Newes, an Austrian actress, as Lulu. Newes and Wedekind, who played Jack the Ripper, had an affair, and after the playwright insulted her, the actress threw herself into a river. Wedekind rescued her, and soon proposed. Despite a difference of 22 years, they remained together until Wedekind's death in 1918. In 1969, she published an autobiography, Lulu - the role of my life. 


Kyla Webb in Lulu: a black and white silent play, which toured the country in 2006
Kyla Webb: Back in 2005 and 2006, the then newly formed Silent Theatre Company of Chicago staged a brilliant and singular adaption of the Lulu plays. Taking their cue from the silent cinema, this Lulu was performed without words. The intent was to say what words often cannot express -- here, gesture and body language did all the talking. At the heart of Lulu: a black and white silent play was an immensely talented young actress, Kyla Webb, in the title role. Webb was Lulu incarnate -- throwing her affections and body about with abandon on a razor's edge of danger and desire. A revival is in the works.


Melanie Griffith as Lulu in Something Wild (1986).
PHOTO: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc
Melanie Griffith: Though she didn't play Wedekind or Berg's Lulu, Melanie Griffith was Lulu to a generation of moviegoers. In Jonathan Demme's 1986 thriller, Something Wild, Griffith is given the character's name and unpredictable personae, as well as Brooks' trademark hairstyle. Though a stylistic gloss on some of Wedekind's more profound themes, Something Wild remains a clever, layered, Hitchcockian take on the nature of desire and uncertainty.

reprinted from Huffington Post: 

More great reviews for the KINO Lorber Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks

More good reviews for the new KINO Lorber DVD & Blu-ray of Diary of a Lost Girl continue to trickle in. Yesterday, Stephen Schaefer wrote in the Boston Herald:

"Among the silent cinema’s style icons the sole rival to Greta Garbo is America’s Louise Brooks who never attained the stature of the glum Swede but whose remarkable memoir, the 1982 LULU IN HOLLYWOOD, single handedly revived her reputation and insured her position for posterity.  A Kansas born dancer/actress Brooks is known for epitomizing the Roaring Twenties flapper with her distinctive bobbed haircut.  She is revered for the two 1929 films she made in Europe for G. W. Pabst, PANDORA’s BOX about the femme fatale Lulu who destroys every man who comes into sphere until she is murdered by Jack the Ripper and DIARY OFA LOST GIRL (Blu-ray, Kino Classics, unrated).  DIARY has Brooks a lost soul, seduced, disowned, imprisoned in a “home” for wayward women and ending up in a swank brothel.  In this masterful restoration, from archival 35 mm elements, DIARY benefits from an incisive commentary by the director of the Louise Brooks Society Thomas Gladysz.  There is also, strangely and surprisingly and happily enough, an 18-minute sound short Brooks made in 1931, WINDY RILEY GOES HOLLYWOOD.   Brooks was 78 when she died in 1985, three short years after her book was published."

While the day before that, Amy Longsdorf, wrote in the (Cherry Hill, NJ) Courier-Post:

"Diary of a Lost Girl (1929, Kino, unrated, $30) After “Pandora’s Box,” director G.W. Pabst and actress Louise Brooks teamed up for one of the most stunning melodramas of the silent era. Beautifully restored to its original running time, the Berlin-shot film follows a naive pharmacist’s daughter as she is seduced and abandoned by her father’s assistant. Placed in a horrific home for wayward girls, she escapes only to wind up in a brothel. Way ahead of its time, “Diary” tackles provocative themes of sexuality and exploitation while providing  Brooks with a role that helped defined her career."

Louise Brooks, William Kentridge and the Making of Lulu

There is an old saying. Chance favors the prepared mind. There is another saying about being in the right place at the right time.

I love books. And have long been involved in various aspects of publishing. For two-and-a-half years I worked at Arion Press in San Francisco as its Director of Marketing and Sales. Arion Press, if you're not familiar, is one of the last letterpress publishers in the world. Started more than 40 years ago, Arion makes extraordinary, limited edition, handmade books. Their Moby-Dick, with 100 wood engravings by Barry Moser, and their Ulysses, with 40 etchings by Robert Motherwell, are each legendary and sought after.

One day in 2013 at an Arion Press staff meeting, we were discussing upcoming projects. At the time, the press was looking for a new book to publish; the press was also wanting to work with artist William Kentridge -- a proposed Flaubert project with Kentridge had stalled out. At the time, Kentridge was deep into his production of Alban Berg's opera Lulu, which was based on two plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind.

I have always been an idea guy, and it was at that meeting that I suggested to Arion publisher Andrew Hoyem that the press pair Kentridge with Wedekind's two Lulu plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box. I made the suggestion not long after having read in the New York Times that Kentridge himself was inspired by Brooks -- actress who played Lulu in the 1929 silent film, Pandora's Box. It seemed like a good fit.

Speaking to the New York Times in 2013, Kentridge explained "that his Lulu was being inspired by German Expressionism, Weimar cinema (including, of course, Pandora’s Box, the G. W. Pabst version of the Lulu story starring Louise Brooks), Max Beckmann drypoints depicting brothels and the like...."

Not long after the staff meeting where I made my suggestion, Hoyem approached Kentridge with the idea of publishing the Lulu plays accompanied by artwork by Kentridge. After some back and forth, the project was a go.

Fast forward to 2015. Arion Press has just released its edition of Wedekind's The Lulu Plays, featuring 67 Kentridge drawings (printed by four-color offset lithography) bound into the book. The images are derived from brush and ink drawings for projections included in the artist's new production of Berg's opera, which opens at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on November 5. It looks to be a terrific production.

The role of Lulu is sung by the German coloratura soprano Marlis Peterson (a dirty blonde who wears her hair shoulder length); she is famed for the role, and in this production sports a dark bob a la Louise Brooks.

Those seeking a sneak peak of the visuals behind the opera should head over to the Marion Goodman Gallery in New York, where "William Kentridge: Drawings for Lulu" is on display through December 19th. The exhibit presents the original 67 drawings by Kentridge used in the opera and the book, as well as a suite of four related linocut prints. The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is also on display at the gallery, as well as at the IFPDA Print Fair in New York from November 4 through November 8.

The Arion Press edition of The Lulu Plays is a fine achievement. It's both handsome and sexy. Four-hundred copies were printed, each signed by the artist and numbered. The book is quarto format, measuring 13-1/2" x 10", and is printed by letterpress on luxurious creamy paper utilizing period type in fittingly black and red inks. The book is hand bound, and comes in a slipcase. Louise Brooks and her role in Pandora's Box is mentioned in the introduction.

To learn more about the new edition of The Lulu Plays, check out this video from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on-stage conversation between Kentridge and Arion Press publisher Hoyem.

The Met's production of William Kentridge's staging of Alban Berg's opera will be streamed live into theater's across the country on Saturday, November 21st. More info HERE.

New Book: Charlie Chaplin Archive - wow wow wow

The other day, I received my copy (#105) of The Charlie Chaplin Archives. My first response was "Wow." I knew this book was big, but I hadn't not realized how BIG! "Wow." The book is nearly 18 inches wide and 3 inches thick. It weighs more than 15 pounds, and comes in its own box with carry handle. "Wow." I'm impressed, and think this is the book of the year for film buffs!

"The most un-put-downable movie book of the season is also the most un-pick-uppable one… It’s an apt tribute to the filmmaker, whose artistry transcends the cinema and spans world-historical dimensions… a revelation of Chaplin’s creative process, even to the furious core of energy, passion, lust, and sheer will that fueled it…" — TheNewYorker.com

According to the publisher, "With unrestricted access to the Chaplin archives, TASCHEN presents the ultimate book on the making of every one of his films. With 900 images, including stills, memos, storyboards and on-set photos, as well as interviews with Chaplin and his closest collaborators, it reveals the process behind the Chaplin genius, from the impromptu invention of early shots to the meticulous retakes and reworking of scenes and gags in his classic movies: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and the provocative Hitler parody The Great Dictator (1940)."

Oh, and yes, Louise Brooks is mentioned in The Charlie Chaplin Archive. On page 279, editor Paul Duncan notes "The Gold Rush went on to gross over $4 million worldwide. Chaplin remained in New York for two months after the premiere. During this time he had an affair with Louise Brooks, a showgirl who would later have success as a movie actress."

The book includes:

• The Chaplin life history in words and pictures
• 900 images including many previously unseen stills, on-set photos, memos, documents, storyboards, posters, and designs, plus scripts and images for unmade films
• An oral history, told from the point of view of Chaplin himself, drawing upon his extensive writings, many of which have never been reprinted before.
• Supplementary interviews with some of his closest collaborators.
• Material from over 150 books of press clippings in Chaplin's archives, which range from his early days in music halls to his death
• Chaplin's short films, from Making a Living (1914) to The Pilgrim (1923), as well as all of his feature-length movies, from The Kid (1921) to A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
• The first print run of 10,000 copies includes a precious 12 frame strip from City Lights (1931), cut from a 35 mm print in Chaplin’s archives.

Kurt Gerron and Diary of a Lost Girl

My audio commentary for the new Kino Lorber DVD / Blu-ray of Diary of a Lost Girl has been getting very positive reviews. It has been described as "insightful" by a well regarded film historian, as "thorough and informative" by an Emmy nominee, and as "well-researched and often-fascinating" by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who knew Louise Brooks.

The most recent review, a rather thoughtful piece on amazon.com, called it "excellent" - though they did have a few complaints: "The Kino Blu-ray comes with an excellent full-length audio commentary by Thomas Gladysz, the director of the Louise Brooks Society, which is an online info archive devoted to Brooks. Unfortunately, there are many long stretches of silence during the commentary. Gladysz talks about the actors and crew, the film's artistry, the historical background, and the social climate at the time the movie was made. At one point, he recommends that we check out a  documentary on the life of one of the minor actors in the movie, Kurt Gerron (who plays the portly, friendly figure of the brothel), but didn't mention the title of the documentary. That film is the 2002 Oscar-nominated feature documentary "Prisoner of Paradise", about Gerron's life and career that were cut short by the Nazis."

I stand corrected. And I am truly glad that attention has been called to this outstanding actor and personality. Here is that documentary, which includes a clip from Diary of a Lost Girl.