I got together with a couple of friends last night at Motor City on Ludlow Street, a bar I probably hadn't been inside for over a decade. The interior remains endearingly seedy although instead of the raucous garage rock one would normally expect to be playing, we happened to stumble into the establishment during roots reggae night. So, in between an irritating, high-volume conversation at a neighboring table about football (including lots of earnest high fives) and some sternum-quaking dub (notably an inexplicable reggae cover of "My Love" by Paul McCartney & Wings), my friends and I huddled around our beers and strained to hear each other speak.
Somewhere during the conversation, my friend John brought up the Spice Girls, although I'm not entirely sure why. I believe he was drawing a parallel to the career trajectory of Lady Gaga, but the details escape me. In any case, this in turn led to a spirited discussion about the plot of the Spice Girls' film, "Spice World" (a cinematic experience John was arguably fortunate enough to endure in a movie theatre). Along the way, I confessed that I'd take the Spice Girls over most of today's pop piffle by a wide margin (with apologies to Lady Gaga). My wife was a big fan of theirs, so I'm no stranger to the Spice oeuvre. I'd probably live a long, fulfilled life if I never had to hear "Wannabe" again, but overall, their stuff didn't make me want to blow up the world in the same fashion that the bleating ditties of, say, Beyonce or Mariah Carey do.
In a weird coincidence, the Spice Girls inserted themselves into the news today with the announcement that a Spice Girls musical ala "Mama Mia" is in the works. At the office, I wondered aloud if the `Girls had enough recognizable hits to flesh out a proper musical. This, of course, prompted my colleague Drew and I to rattle off as many Spice hits as we could. Drew cited "2 Become 1," and that triggered my memory of the video. The song may be a forgettable, soppy ballad, rife with cumbersome allusions to safe sex (put it on… put it on…), but the video is a lovely slow-motion montage of nocturnal Manhattan. Herein, witness the girls flouncing about Times Square, Midtown, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, 6th Avenue and, of course, the World Trade Center. My favorite locale is in a pre-gentrification shot on the corner of West 14th Street & 9th Avenue (now a chic restaurant, then a desolate backwater). There's also a moment wherein Sporty Spice strides unconvincingly down the middle of Columbus Circle with the since entirely-remodeled "lollipop building" in the background.
But don't take my word for it, see below. Zigg-a-zig-ah!
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