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Take a ride to downtown Cleveland Alivia Cook Staff Writer The location of Case Western Reserve University’s campus is not ideal for accessing the vast selection of activities in the downtown Cleveland area. Luckily, each CWRU student receives an RTA pass that opens up a whole new world of excursion opportunities. The main bus line that runs down Euclid Ave. is the HealthLine, which connects University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic and downtown. If you can sit for a 40 minute bus ride to get downtown, you can find a lot of fun activities just waiting to be explored. Everyone loves to bowl and located off the 6th St. stop is the Corner Alley, a bar and arcade wrapped in one. On one side, the Corner Alley serves both food and drinks. On the other, there is, of course, bowling, including 16 total lanes and arcade games. The prices are fairly reasonable; you pay per lane and can play with up to eight people. The prices are $25 per lane per hour before 5 p.m. and $50 per lane per hour after 5 p.m. If you don’t have your own pair of bowling shoes, you can rent them for $3.50 a person. The atmosphere on the inside is extremely welcoming, upbeat and vibrant. Another fun downtown attraction, off the last stop on the HealthLine and located a short walk from Public Square, is the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. Admission prices are $19.95 for adults aged 13+, $13.95 for children aged 2-12 and free for those under two or over 100 years
Downtown Cleveland’s E. 4th Street is home to many attractions, including but not limited to The Corner Alley, Flannery’s Pub and the House of Blues. Courtesy of Erik Drost/Flickr old. It is open Monday-Sunday, 10 hosting an event called “That’s Aa.m. to 5 p.m. with the last entry an Moray.” Throughout Valentine’s Day hour before close. The aquarium has weekend, the Aquarium will have a some new residents to check out: a romance-themed “I Spy” challenge, dwarf seahorse, gulf pipefish, and bo- animal courtship facts, oversized esemani crayfish. They also recently animal pun Valentine’s Day cards, announced the birth of a rare weedy a heart-shaped photo op and some sea dragon on Jan. 31. They also re- mood music in the galleries. They are cently opened their Stingray Touch- having extended hours until 7 p.m. pool back up! This weekend they are for this event!
Downtown Cleveland is also home to some amazing sports teams, including the Guardians (baseball), the Cavaliers (basketball) and the Monsters (ice hockey). The Guardians season will begin at the end of March and run through October. They play at Progressive Field off the 9th St. stop, with tickets running as low as $12. The Cavs play at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse right behind Progressive Field. Tickets for the Cavs game go for as low as $30 each. Their season lasts roughly from November to May. Last but not least, the Monsters also play at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and tickets for them go as low as $8. Their season runs from February to April. As for food, downtown Cleveland has a lot of variety. Downtown does have a Barrio that is fantastic, as we all know. If you are looking for a burger, they have Shake Shack. They also have Taco Bell Cantina for those of legal drinking age. If you’re in the mood for some good diner food, Yours Truly is an excellent pick. Downtown Cleveland is full of surprises and adventures for everyone to discover. They usually have a ton of free events, but most of the activities downtown are fair priced for college-aged students. The food and nightlife are also attractive for bored CWRU students craving some exploration. So, go get your RTA pass from the Thwing Center basement, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and take a ride downtown.
M3GAN: The campy killer AI bot and her ‘best friend’ Joey Gonzalez Life Editor
AI doll M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android, sings, dances and literally slays her way through this so-bad-it’s-good slasher flick. Courtesy of Universal Pictures I’m pretty sure we’ve all seen the about the dangers of modern parentextensive marketing campaign for ing and advancements in AI technolthe film “M3GAN,’’ from TikToks of ogy, M3GAN certainly didn’t disapher dancing to her several look-alikes point—even when the plot did. unleashed on the New York City The plot itself was fairly lacklussubway. Before the film was even ter, having already been done before released, the artificially intelligent in a number of previous films: An AI doll had reached internet fame and robot or autonomous doll suddenly fans were eagerly waiting to see her turns evil and decides to kill everyone in action. I had the chance to see the around them. This isn’t to say that I film for myself. As a comedic slasher wasn’t thoroughly entertained, but it
was more so from the iconic killer rather than the entirely overdone plot. The film follows an eight-year-old girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) whose parents die in a car accident and is sent to live with her emotionally unavailable aunt. The aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams), is an engineer for a toy company and has been secretly working on a life-sized autonomous doll to replace all other toys. Her project is shut down by her boss and she decides to continue her work at home. She introduces the M3GAN, Model 3 Generative Android, to her niece and they quickly begin to bond. M3GAN is programmed to protect Cady at all costs—this quickly turns deadly. Scattered throughout the film are iconic scenes of the camp killer M3GAN, from the scene where she sings “Bulletproof” by La Roux as a bedtime remedy, to her hallway dance scene where she hunts down the boss that cut her programming. The plot itself was a combination of fairly forgettable classic slasher tropes, but with a killer as iconic as M3GAN, the film will certainly be remembered. The marketing scheme for the film certainly cemented M3GAN as an iconic killer, with her strawberry blonde curls and her wardrobe reminiscent of an elderly woman in line at Chico’s. She wears a trench coat-esque dress and a striped longsleeved shirt with an obnoxiously large bow at the collar. M3GAN certainly nails the doll aesthetic, but her personality is really what seals the deal. Despite going completely rogue in the film, she continues to slay— both literally and figuratively—such as in the aforementioned dance scene. Her kills were fairly creative but a bit lackluster. The first time
she kills someone, M3GAN pushes a child down a small hill to be hit by a car. And while it was a shocker, she just used her surroundings to kill him. Her other kills do get a bit more creative but they’ve definitely been used before in other horror films, from pressure washing chemicals into the neighbor’s mouth to hacking at office workers with a paper cutter. They sound gruesome on paper but you would think that a killer AI would get a bit more creative in the way she kills people, especially for such an iconic villain. Despite the film’s flaws, I was thoroughly engaged with it the entire time. I’m coining the phrase, “the Ma effect,” after the 2019 Octavia Spencer horror movie “Ma.” “Ma” struggled with similar plot issues and I found the movie more funny than scary. But it became such an iconic film simply because of its killer— Octavia Spencer. The same concept applies to M3GAN, where the iconic killer carries a film whose plot doesn’t exactly hold up on its own. And there isn’t necessarily a problem with that. Sometimes films don’t need to be revolutionary to be entertaining. “M3GAN” makes relevant references and keeps the audience engaged despite being predictable, and while the film could have been significantly stronger by addressing these problems, I was still extremely entertained and would put the campy android on my list of favorite killers. I would highly recommend streaming “M3GAN” if you have the opportunity—it will definitely have you laughing and might hit you with a jumpscare or two. Thankfully a sequel is already in the works for those of you who enjoyed the killer AI as much as I did.