In no order other than how they come to mind. Travel, plants, Brazil, languages, Paris, igbo idiosyncracies, sleep, being in bed, laughing, cool children, asking direct questions, what drives people to do the things they do (good and bad, but particularly bad), religion, God, the beach, 21st century technology, conspiracy theories, Arsenal, boxing, black history, me. Likes: good food, good wine, sweet-smelling skin, people with riddim, sunshine, being right, desserts, knowledge, winning, new experiences, talking in jive, sassin' it Dislikes: people who call you and say "yeah, i just got this number on my caller ID/1471". Yeah, so? What do you want, a prize? Get off my line!, english pub culture, generation-ASBO, people who don't say please or thank you, video footage of bacteria dividing (it makes me feel SO queasy), mice OR rats, heartbreak
Anyone who convinces me they're worth my time, who can teach me something I don't already know, make me feel inspired, or make me laugh - you can't go wrong if you make me laugh. Anyone who knows the way to Amarillo...
Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, James Brown, Jon Legend, Kanye West, R Kelly, Musiq, Maxwell, Jill Scott, Lyfe Jennings, Jaheim, Nas, Common, Aretha Franklin, Ike & Tina Turner, Micheal Jackson (Janet? Yeah, go on then), Jamiroquai, Sway, Kano, Roots Manuva, Run DMC, Missy, Gorillaz, Roots, Jay-Z, Jodeci, Bob Marley, Bill Withers, Prince, Miles Davis, Ali Farke Toure, Youssou N'Dor, Floetry, Alicia Keys, LL Cool J (then, not now), Jamelia (she's got talent), Sade, OutKast, NERD, the Air Jamaica jingle (freakin' LOVE that tune) and that'll do for now.
Right off the bat: Coming To America - oh yeah. The classics: Pretty Woman, Mannequin (Hollywood's great!), Working Girl, The Goonies, Blazin' Saddles, Grease, Saturday Night Fever ("dig that new haircut and loving that polyester look!"), Zoolander, Gigli (it's truly awful, go watch it), Monsters Inc, You Got Served (terrible acting, great dancing), The Descent, Love Jones (sweet), 28 Days Later, Airplane ("Surely you can't be serious? I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"-great stuff!) The weepies: Hotel Rwanda, Life is Beautiful, Ghost (I dare you not to cry!), Beauty and the Beast With my arthouse cinema hat on: City Of God, La Haine, Memento, Crash Controversial movies I either hated: Mulholland Drive (can I have my money back please? Seriously. Or else the 2 hours of my life I wasted back?), or really didn't think were that great: Donnie Darko, Usual Suspects, King Kong, A History of Violence. And I've never seen E.T., any Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. That's right, you heard me: NEVER. And I'll never watch them either, just to p*** you off.
The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, Extras, Six Feet Under (unsurprisingly, they all died in the end), Desperate Housewives, Sex And The City (you know they got to keep all of the shoes???), Nip/Tuck, ER, My Wife & Kids, The Tyra Banks show (I like it when she cries. which is often), X Factor (my secret shame!), Eastenders (can't believe it's only just come to me!), What Not To Wear, 10 years younger, How clean is your house (gross, but lets you feel a bit better about living in your own filth), Extreme Makeover (Janey Bloggs was a 20-stone munter... now, thanks to plastic surgery, she's a beautiful swan...dontcha just love modern western society?), anything with David Attenborough, Judge John Deed, Bad Girls, the news, Scrubs, Big Love.A
Now we're talking: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Small Island by Andrea Levy, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Patrick Neate, The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Isabel Allende, Wild Swans, Bitter Fruit (can't remember the author's name), David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, but also read Ghostwritten if you can find it), George Orwell, George Eliot, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (brilliant, brilliant, brilliant), Toni Morrison, Terri MacMillan, Zadie Smith (though would it kill her to cheer up a bit? jeez!). I hate Dan Brown: I think he pays a child to write them and is rolling around on a huge pile of money laughing at us all.
Tina Turner, Oprah Winfery (don't worry, I don't start all my sentences with "you know Oprah says that...", but in terms of rags to riches stories, they don't get any raggier to richer), Wangari Maathai, my mum-she's strong like you would not believe, Rosa Parks.