We now live in a post-“Morbius” society. After its announcement in November 2017 by Sony, its first trailer in January 2020 and then its delayed release date of April 1, 2022 (in another world, it was just an April Fool’s prank), the Marvel- adjacent vampire movie starring possible cult leader/method asshole Jared Leto is something that now exists. It defies traditional description due to how incalculably odd the entirety of its existence has been: from inception to production to marketing to release and re-release. Amid all of this were the memes: mockeries of Sony for thinking anyone wanted this, typical Leto horror stories from set as Sony kept making the movie despite the mockery, everyone seeing past Sony’s manipulations in teasing past Spider-Men in trailers and overhyping Morbius as a “new Marvel legend.” When it finally came out, “Morbius” was so predictably devoid of quality that the new joke was to give it ironic and absurdist praise. What was inspiring about the movement was that despite flopping on the first release, Sony interpreted the memes as actual demand. They re-released it in theaters, only for it to spectacularly re-flop. After Leto himself released a video reading a script entitled “Morbius 2: It’s Morbin’ Time,” the meme was declared dead. Now that the joke born out of anti-corporate revulsion had been embraced by the very company that birthed it, Morbin’ time was over. However — like an undead creature of the night — the “Morbius” meme continued to rear its decaying head over every corner of the internet with nearly every new cinematic release. I remember seeing a review of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” after being disappointed and to my horror (a different horror from most times I read YouTube comment sections), every single comment displayed some variation of the “Morbin’ time” format. There’s a faint connection here — Doctor Strange’s multiversal adventures could semi-realistically tie themselves to Sony’s pathetic attempts at connecting “Morbius” to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But this excess of sardonic praise could be another symptom of superhero fatigue as Marvel and similar companies push out more and more content onto no-longer engaged audiences. Maybe in another life, we would have been happy with “Morbius.” These hyperbolic expressions feel like tales from another world, a place somewhere in the “Morbiverse” where it miraculously did live up to Sony’s attempted hype. You know that feeling when a good film whisks you away into another world for a few hours and you walk out into the parking lot, a bit changed from your time there? After the “Doctor Strange” sequel, I felt something I hadn’t before. Instead of being a usual escape, the film was a reminder of what was wrong with modern media. l was taken to a different universe, but it was a darker timeline that I didn’t want to be in. I flocked to that review like so many others, looking for sincere validation in my criticisms, only to find nothing but Morbin’ comments. When I saw and reviewed “Jurassic World: Dominion,” the feeling and the memes returned — and when I saw and reviewed “Thor: Love and Thunder,” I ended up fooling myself into thinking it was better than it actually was. The Mandela effect is a phenomenon in which people strongly insist on cultural discrepancies and — like the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse — some believe it’s the result of parallel universes converging/ sharing information with each other. Of course, believe what you want, but gaslighting ourselves as a society on such a massive scale seems to only be reserved for these Mandela phenomena. However, as I said, we now live in a post- “Morbius” society. If the Mandela effect occurs when tiny aspects of the universe feel “off,” the “Morbius effect” is the feeling I’ve gotten from so much of the highly- anticipated art our modern society produces feeling “off” in the same way and falling flat. Inevitably, these mediocre projects circle back to the Morbin’ meme format and are thus raised onto a pedestal of irony, hyperbole and satire. I believe we all want the art we experience to be an amazing, life- changing piece of media we’ll talk about for decades to come. There is only so much time in the world to experience art, and only so much space in our brains to internalize it and billboards to advertise it. Especially after the pandemic made moviegoing impossible for so long, it’s a letdown that so many of these post-COVID movies were below or shockingly just mid, at least to me. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Arts This Saturday, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology hosted its second annual “Spooky, Weird, and Magical: Halloween with the Kelsey” tour. Led by docent Robin Little, the tour explored a variety of objects from the approximately 1,500 on permanent display through the lens of Halloween. Before we began, Little made clear: “When I say weird, I don’t mean weird in a negative way. I mean unusual. I am not putting any value judgment on the word ‘weird’.” Here are the 5 “weirdest,” or most unusual, artifacts we saw, along with explanations about their historical context, according to the tour. 1. A Cat Mummy The Kelsey has a strict rule against any human remains within its collection; however, this policy does not extend to the domain of animals. Their collection currently includes a mummified hawk, baboon, cat head and entire cat (pictured above). In Ancient Egypt, animals were associated with certain gods, and cats were particularly powerful divine symbols. Many Egyptians wanted to have their pets buried next to them and as a result, many mummified animals have been found alongside the remains of their owners . But dealers were not always scrupulous, and the recent ability to x-ray artifacts has revealed that many animal mummies actually just contain random assortments of bones. It remains uncertain what remains are actually under this cat- shaped mummy. 2. Four Human-Headed Canopic Jar Lids The Ancient Egyptian process of human mummification began with the removal of four internal organs: the lungs, the liver, the stomach and the intestines. Once the organs were removed, they were treated with various chemicals, wrapped in linen and then placed into canopic jars like the ones above. The jars were buried alongside the mummified body in their sarcophagus. Different jars were reserved for specific viscera and possessed specific magical properties. 3. Some Very Rusty Forceps These forceps are an example of a medical tool that would be used to deliver babies in Ancient Rome. Although seemingly not the most hygienic instrument, they allowed practitioners to reach areas they could not with their fingers alone. Forceps came in various forms and could be used for various other purposes, such as extracting tumors or even cosmetic surgeries. Romans would often accompany such medical practices by taking votives of certain body parts to shrines in hopes of receiving prayers for healing. 4. A “Demon Bowl” “Demon Bowls,” also known as “incantation bowls” from the Parthian Period in modern-day Iraq, were an ancient alternative to demon busters and an example of early practical magic. The bowls were used as a protective measure to lure and then trap demons or ghosts, although they could also be used to summon one for help. Since the majority of people were illiterate, the spells were often illegible. Recent research has even suggested that the spiraling magical inscriptions were gibberish or “pseudo script,” so we still do not know what they mean to this day. The five spookiest artifacts from the Kelsey Museum Halloween Tour Wednesday, November 9, 2022 — 5 Design by Meghana Tummala JADEN KATZ Daily Arts Writer ‘Scorn’ is a fleshy nightmare I’m glad to wake up from Do you remember going to Halloween parties as a kid where someone made you close your eyes and feel a bowl of peeled grapes, telling you they were eyeballs? Or that a bowl of spaghetti was a bunch of brains? Each thing you touched was a vile mystery, making you both disoriented and disgusted. This is the kind of horror that sticks with me longer than any jumpscares or haunted houses: the psychological terror of the unknown. Developed by indie team Ebb Software, “Scorn” understands this type of horror well, using it to immerse players in its nightmarish world. The game begins with your character disconnecting themself from some sort of parasitic machine, and from there you are free to roam around. There’s no explanation for where you are or who you might be, but you can gather from your surroundings that you must be in some version of hell. The environment of “Scorn” is both beautiful and disturbing. There are towering cathedrals, twisting stone staircases and strange operating rooms with menacing buzzsaws and brain- scooping devices. The game takes heavy inspiration from the works of H.R. Giger, the legendary artist who designed the xenomorphs from the “Alien” franchise. As you traverse through the world, his self-described “biomechanical” art style is brought to life with fleshy cobwebs hanging from every ceiling and strange red, pulsing tubes reminiscent of intestines running along the floors. The game’s sound design is another great addition to the atmosphere. An ambient soundtrack accompanies you as you explore, which starts to sound like white noise as time goes on. This gives the game a very womb-like feeling, which is perfect considering your surroundings. Strange groaning noises and muffled shouts help to guide you along your way, although their sources aren’t always clear; then again, not much in “Scorn’”s world is. As you wander around you’ll find strange devices to interact with, but you’re left completely in the dark as to what they do. A lot of these are levers that require you to insert your fingers into sinewy slots to pull them, allowing you to control something in the room. This might be a giant crane that helps you move an object or a drone that flies around. The game’s main objective lies in trying to figure out how to use these devices to unlock a path to the next area. I don’t know what it is with horror games having some of the most frustrating puzzles known to man, but some of the ones in here really tripped me up. I’m no stranger to weird puzzles, but I spent over 20 minutes on one in particular that required me to spin a series of stone dials until I aligned them all perfectly. Although I understand that “Scorn” is supposed to make you scared and confused, this just broke my immersion and made me want to bang my head against the wall. If the world of “Scorn” is compelling enough for you to get immersed in, you’ll enjoy your play-through exploring every squishy nook and squelching cranny. But if you are expecting a gory romp through hell like in the latest games in the “Doom” series, you’re going to be disappointed. There is some combat, but the sloppy mechanics make for an experience too frustrating to enjoy. While the clunky combat in horror games like “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill” adds to the horror by making the player feel helpless, it feels like an afterthought in “Scorn.” Thankfully, you can usually avoid the headache of having to fight by just running past your enemies. HUNTER BISHOP Daily Arts Writer The ‘Morbius’ effect: a new age of online art consumption SAARTHAK JOHRI Daily Arts Writer puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com By Bonnie Eisenman ©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 09/21/22 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis 09/21/22 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Release Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2022 ACROSS 1 Thwack 5 Informed (of) 10 Compensation 14 Tuck out of view 15 Wrinkled 16 Many a univ. donor 17 365 days 18 Rub ingredient 19 HBO political satire starring Julia Louis- Dreyfus 20 Impractical way to get dressed? 23 Barack and Michelle’s eldest daughter 26 Family room 27 Impatient 28 Lives 30 Cookie fruit 31 Planning meeting for the costume department? 35 “Stop filming!” 38 Broody sorts? 39 Sir or sri 40 More than dislike 41 Donkey 42 Disappointing sign on a store selling warm-weather garments? 44 GPS display 45 Small village 46 Food cart snacks in South Asia 49 Texting letters 52 Swerves 53 Really pulls off a jacket? 56 Initial poker bet 57 Japanese noodle dish 58 Carried debt 62 Appear to be 63 “You __ kidding!” 64 Grow tiresome 65 Jekyll’s counterpart 66 Basil-based sauce 67 Yields, as a profit DOWN 1 Bashful 2 Blip on a polygraph, maybe 3 Hugo-nominated novelist Palmer 4 Continues 5 “One more thing ... ” 6 Totally beat 7 Ouzo flavoring 8 Scouting mission, briefly 9 Garden with forbidden fruit 10 Fluttering in the wind 11 Warning signal 12 Ballpark figure 13 Like cans in a recycling bin, hopefully 21 Doth own 22 Fall flat 23 Anime genre featuring giant robots 24 Wheel- connecting rods 25 NFL team whose mascot is named Roary 29 Punchline lead-in 30 __ and blood 32 “Pull up a chair” 33 Corp. computer exec 34 Fuzzy sitcom star of the 1980s 35 “The Grouchy Ladybug” writer/ illustrator 36 Out-and-out 37 Tries, as one’s patience 40 Place of origin 42 Cheerios grains 43 “__ Nagila”: Israeli folk song 44 Defiant retort 46 Cymbal sound 47 Bee product 48 Performed 49 Open up, in a way 50 Fast-spreading social media posts 51 Fragrance 54 Hip hop genre 55 “I’m __ your tricks!” 59 Pint-size 60 “Mangia!” 61 Many profs SUDOKU By Lisa Senzel & Christina Iverson ©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 09/14/22 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis 09/14/22 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Release Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2022 ACROSS 1 Spanish tennis great Nadal, familiarly 5 Upgrade, as machinery 10 Uncertain 14 Cabbage buy 15 Glazer of “The Afterparty” 16 Skating commentator Lipinski 17 Analogy words 18 Bridal path flower piece 19 Stash, as gear 20 Japanese drama 21 Cookbook contents 23 Author Rand 24 Genre for composer Terence Blanchard 26 Informal “You’re oversharing” 27 Caramel candies 29 Like some dangerous isotopes 32 Curry of the NBA 34 Bike part 35 Quintet for most starfish 38 Prefix for a lifesaving “Pen” 39 Not so big 41 Knock 42 Try to hit 44 Tell it like it isn’t 45 Speed skater Ohno 47 Act parts 49 Past the point of caring 50 Michelle of “Crazy Rich Asians” 52 Neighborhood 53 *Secretive email option 60 Uncommon 61 Assertion 62 Cookie used as a 12-Down topping 63 Admit frankly 64 Omit in speech 65 Spreadsheet unit 66 Soaks up the sun 67 Calf-roping event 68 Diet that’s high in fats and low in carbs, as illustrated by parts of the answers to the starred clues DOWN 1 Safari herbivore 2 Fabulous writer? 3 *Figure often depicted with a scythe and an hourglass 4 Hubbub 5 Ready for picking 6 __ college 7 *Pakistani-born chef who was posthumously honored with a James Beard Award 8 Up the creek 9 Story 10 Part of FWIW 11 *Serious software problem 12 Dessert from 16 Handles, familiarly 13 Signs of boredom 21 “Wicked!” 22 __ Lanka 25 Sidelines cheer 28 Fertility lab cells 30 Maker of the Deep Blue chess computer 31 Workout top 32 Bodies of water 33 __ fail 36 Timbuktu’s land 37 Predicament 39 Fine horse 40 Black bird 43 “What’s the latest?” 46 NBC symbol 48 Abby Wambach’s sport 49 Juliet’s cry 51 Winnie-the-Pooh greeting 52 Tolerate 53 Sassy kid 54 Chocolate __ cake 55 Waffle maker 56 “Kills bugs dead!” spray 57 Hockey Hall of Famer Willie 58 Hit, as with snowballs 59 “Seize the day” initialism PARKING Parking Space for Rent North State & Kingsley 734-904-0649 CLASSIFIED ADS Your classified ad here! 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