what will you become tomorrow?

Happy 30th Anniversary Chrono Trigger!

If you’re unfamiliar with Chrono Trigger, the basic plot is that our plucky heroes accidentally get pulled back in time after a science experiment goes wrong. On their quest to get back to their own time, they accidentally end up in the distant future, and discover that the world is destroyed in the year 1999 (of course,) and the future they find is a desolate wasteland where the few surviving humans are on the brink of starvation. It’s terrible!

But here’s the thing: our heroes are from the year 1000. The apocalypse is 999 years away from their time. Once they find the way back to their own time, they could have just forgotten about the future. It wouldn’t have affected them! They would be long dead before any of that ever happened! The only character who would have been impacted was the robot they met in the future, but they could have brought him back to their time too and called it a day. There was no consequence for them to walk away.

But they don’t, of course. They make it their mission to figure out what caused the apocalypse and how to prevent it by jumping back and forth through time. They do all that, risking their lives, for a future that they wouldn’t live long enough to actually experience. They don’t do it for themselves. They do it for the world.

closeups 🌿⤵️

a digital, coloured, full body illustration of the characters qifrey, tetia, coco, richeh and agott from the manga witch hat atelier. qifrey is shown standing in the centre with his white tunic flowing softly to the side. he's facing the viewer but looking to his right where Tetia and Coco are sitting on his upper arm and shoulder respectively. tetia is hanging on with both arms, swinging slightly back with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. coco is looking at qifrey with a wide smile. on his other shoulder is agott, her back turned to the viewer and hunched over. she is shown in profile, working on a spell in her palm quire. just below, hanging in qifrey's left arm is richeh, her long blue hair falling all around her.

closeup of the same drawing zoomed in on everyone's faces.

closeup of the same drawing zoomed in on tetia, coco and qifrey.

closeup of the same drawing, zoomed in on agott and richeh

Toni Braxton - I'm Still Breathing 2000

Toni Michele Braxton is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She has sold over 70 million records worldwide and is one of the best-selling female artists in history. Braxton has won seven Grammy Awards, nine Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and numerous other accolades. In 2011, Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In 2017 she was honored with the Legend Award at the Soul Train Music Awards.

The Heat is her third studio album, released on April 25, 2000. The album marked Braxton's departure from her ballads in favor of a more urban sound. Most of the songs (including the nearly instrumental "The Art of Love") were written and produced by Braxton and her husband Keri Lewis (a former member of Mint Condition); two ballads were penned by Diane Warren, and collaborations featured rappers Dr. Dre and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. The Heat opened at number two on the Billboard 200 with 199,000 copies sold in its first week. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 13, 2000, with sales of over two million copies in the US. Additionally, the album was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards, while lead single "He Wasn't Man Enough" won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and was nominated for Best R&B Song. "I'm Still Breathing" was written by Diane Warren, who also wrote Braxton's 1996 mega-hit "Un-Break My Heart".

"I'm Still Breathing" recieved a total of 48,9% yes votes. Previous Toni Braxton polls: #155 "You're Makin' Me High".

Bloodywood - Machi Bhasad 2022

Bloodywood is an Indian metal band from New Delhi, formed in 2016. Their style is primarily described as nu metal but also includes elements of folk metal and metalcore. They began as a parody band that uploaded metal covers of pop songs on Youtube and later wrote their own music.

Rakshak ("Protector") is their debut studio album, independently released on 18 February 2022. The album's music is a blend of Indian folk music and heavy metal, while the lyrics are sung in the English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. The album entered the Billboard charts, making Bloodywood the first Indian metal band to achieve such an accomplishment. The album has been successful on Bandcamp as well, where it topped the album sales of the platform upon release, ranked (as of early March 2022) as the 22nd all-time best-selling new release and as 3rd best-selling metal release.

"Machi Bhasad" ("Expect a Riot"), released in April 2019, was originally composed for the game Beyond Good and Evil 2, but was ultimately rejected. Intended as a call to action to fight injustice, the song was released just as the band revealed 2019 European tour dates.

"Machi Bhasad" received a total of 53,1% yes votes. Previous Bloodywood polls: #679 "Gaddaar".

George Michael - Jesus to a Child 1996

"Jesus to a Child" is a song by English singer and songwriter George Michael, released in January 1996 as the first single from his third studio album, Older. The song was a melancholy tribute to his Brazilian lover Anselmo Feleppa, whom he met when performing in Rio de Janeiro in 1991. Feleppa died two years later from an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. The exact identity of the song's subject — and the nature of their relationship — was cause for a certain amount of innuendo at the time, as Michael had not confirmed his homosexuality and did not do so until 1998. Michael would consistently dedicate the song to Feleppa before performing it live.

The song, both written and produced by Michael, received positive reviews from music critics, many praising it as one of the best songs of the album; both The Guardian and Music Week named it Single of the Week. It peaked at number one in Australia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Norway, and the UK; it was Michael's sixth UK number one and his third as a solo performer. It also reached the top three on several other European charts and peaked at number seven and number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and on the US Cash Box Top 100 respectively. On the Billboard Hot 100, it became the highest new entry by a British artist for more than 25 years. In Spain, the single held the top spot for seven non-consecutive weeks.

The song was used to raise £50,000 for the charity "Help a London Child" with Michael matching every listener's pledge on a pound for pound basis. After Michael's death in 2016, Dame Esther Rantzen, founder of the charity ChildLine, revealed that Michael had secretly donated all of the single's royalties to the charity. She said "George helped us to reach out to hundreds of thousands of children through his generosity. I met him a couple of times, he approached us, rather than us going cap in hand to him, but it was an intensely personal gift. He didn’t want it to be known or to be part of his image." She told BBC News that "he really wanted to keep his help secret, it was an intensely personal gift. It meant we could answer more children."

"Jesus to a Child" received a total of 53,2% yes votes. :'( Previous Wham!/George Michael polls: #62 "As", #108 "Everything She Wants", #219 "Freedom! '90", #444 "Do They Know It's Christmas?", #445 "Last Christmas".

George Michael - Outside 1998

"Outside" is a song by the English singer-songwriter George Michael, released on 19 October 1998 as the lead single from his first greatest hits album, Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998). It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Michael's most recent UK top-three hit. In Greece, Hungary, and Spain, the song peaked at number one, number three in Italy, number four in Denmark, number five in Iceland, number seven in Ireland, and number eight in Finland. It reached number three on the Eurochart Hot 100 and the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, number 11 in New Zealand, and number 13 in Australia.

"Outside" was Michael's first single since his arrest for engaging in a lewd act six months earlier, in April 1998, by an undercover police officer in the public toilet of the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California – an incident that prompted him to declare his homosexuality, which had been rumoured for some years but never publicly confirmed. He was sentenced to 80 hours of community service for the offence.

The satirical music video shows couples engaging in lewd public activities while Michael, dressed as a police officer, dances in a public toilet. Before the song starts properly, the video begins with a parody of a 1970s European pornography film with a short passage of narration in Swedish. Marcelo Rodriguez, the undercover officer who had arrested Michael, claimed the video "mocked" him and filed a legal suit for $10 million. While the matter was initially dismissed, the California Courts of Appeal reinstated the case on 3 December 2002. The judgement ruled that Rodriguez, as a public official, could not legally recover damages for emotional distress.

"Outside" received a total of 55,6% yes votes. Previous Wham!/George Michael polls: #62 "As", #108 "Everything She Wants", #219 "Freedom! '90", #444 "Do They Know It's Christmas?", #445 "Last Christmas", #690 "Jesus to a Child", #716 "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go".