(With apologies, yet again, to Susan Sontag)
Things I like: New York Times’ Spelling Bee. Nina Simone. Swimming. Soto ayam. Praying at the Rawdhah. The Verve. Kampung Boy. Mishary Rashid al-Afaasi. Wayang kulit. P Ramlee. Cellos. The smell of coffee in the morning. Tekken. Sunlight. Taylor Swift. Elton John. Spock. New Labour. Tun Dr. Ismail. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Matt Damon. The Boston Red Sox. Drinking water. Snoop Dogg. Michelle Yeoh. John Mayer. Angkor Wat. Public parades. The colour blue. Benedict Cumberbatch. Bruno Mars. Taipei. Having my hair washed. Rihanna. The azan. The West Wing. Masjidil Haram. Anderson Paak. Robotech cartoons. Port Dickson. Dean Acheson. Gregory Porter. Nasi padang. John Wick. Gin rummy. Halal. Going to bookstores. Christopher Nolan movies. Karipap. Vetiver. U2. Friends from the office. Lat. Nasi lemak Tanglin. Serial.
Things I dislike: Taugeh. Silk. Rudolph Giuliani. Ismail Sabri. Burberry. Madonna. Boris Johnson. Cherry Coke. Late-era Coldplay. That groggy feeling you get after napping during the day. Mussolini. Akon. Sarah Palin. Fagin. Ferdinand Marcos. 1Utama. James Joyce. Taking minutes in meetings. Nigel Farage. Conditional love. Arresting people for not fasting in Ramadan. American healthcare. Military coups. Henry Kissinger. Desperate Housewives. Bacon. Genting. Elon Musk. Twilight. Boyzone. Restaurants that insist on seating you right next to a storm drain. Flyover intersections on the highway. Americans calling their sports championship game “The World Series” as if the rest of the world does not exist or matter. Property developers. Tabloid stories about crumbling marriages. The New York subway. Liverpool Football Club.
Things I like: Iago in Disney’s Aladdin. Father John Misty. BFM. Josiah Bartlet. Michael Jordan. Ella Fitzgerald. Eslite. Tokyo. Reciting the Quran in Masjid Nabawi. Iron and Wine’s Passing Afternoon. Tony Blair (in 1997). Travis. Street food in Penang. Bill Clinton. Arthur C Clarke. Alec Guinness. The Singapore MRT. Pep Guardiola. Radiohead. Yam croquettes. Kinokuniya. Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Conrad’s Nostromo. Full Metal Solid on Playstation 2. Cotton. Bung Karno. Shakespeare. Kyoto. Autumn leaves. Mat Som. Nasi lemak Village Park. Ariana Grande. Ripley in Alien. John Donne. Prince of Persia. J. R. R. Tolkien. Roald Dahl’s B.F.G. That new car smell. Elizabeth Warren. Orange juice. The Tube in London. Generative Artificial Intelligence. The Boston Celtics. Donny Hathaway. Wordle. Bangkok. Harry Styles.
Things I dislike: Iago in Othello. Ted Cruz. Rosmah Mansor. Tinder. Propaganda. People who put billionaires up on a pedestal. 50 Shades of Grey. Cameron Highlands during school holidays. George W Bush. Branded goods. KLIA aerotrain. The Adjudicator in John Wick. Concrete. Vincent Tan. American obsession with guns. Hypocrisy. Crazy girlfriends. Hadi Awang. Homelessness in cities. Fox News. Dating. Boomers. Narendra Modi. Bailouts for bankers. Demolishing people’s homes in order to build urban highways. Grab. Capital punishment. Jakarta traffic. Modern “abstract” Malaysian batik. Dato’ Seri Vida. Manchester City Football Club. SS2. Miley Cyrus. Jose Mourinho. Newt Gingrich. Harry Maguire. Haggis. Regressive consumption taxes. Synthetic fibres. Profile carriers. Crawling up to kings in coronation ceremonies.