Question: If there were a place on campus said to be mystical and sacred, where might one find it? Would it be the same place that halted new construction on campus in the 1980s? Could it truly inspire romance, intellectual discoveries and wonderful outdoor dinners-and-a-dance? The Friends of the John C. Gifford Arboretum, growing between the physics building and San Amaro Drive, invite you to see for yourself.

On a recent walk in the Arboretum, biology graduate student John Cozza showed me a banana tree and cocoa plant, featured in their Halloween tour “Sacred and Mystical Plants of the Arboretum.” He and First Aldridge Horticultural Assistant Rachel King, another Biology graduate student, curated the collection. Gently handling a glossy green leaf, he said, “Your skin is like a banana-leaf,” recounting what some societies take as high compliment. Some peoples believe the god of healing to be embodied in the banana plant.

Other cultures see gods manifested by trees too. Honored by Buddhist and Hindu religions, for example, is the “Truthing Tree,” or ficus. As the ultimate creator, Brahma is witnessed in the powerful roots; its branches personify Vishnu, the preserver; and the regenerated leaves are Shiva, the destroyer/renewer.

So powerful was this imagery that a suspected liar would be brought before the tree, and forced to speak honestly before the gods. Africa’s revered baobab, used to treat various ailments, is also in the Arboretum. In addition, tradition says that deceased village elders are sometimes interred in the hollowed centers of aged Baobabs.

Cultural aphrodisiacs, like the cocoa plant, are here as well. As in the movie Chocolat, Aztecs drank a cocoa seed, vanilla and chili-pepper compound. But due to the drier climate and different soil here– compared to that of its rainforest habitat– the Arboretum’s specimen may not produce great fruit.

Led by biology professor and Director Dr. Carol Horvitz, the Friends of the Gifford Arboretum plan several events. These include tours, the fall picnic and spring lecture. With various palms, shrubs, and other plants like ginger and heliconias -beauties that exemplify the tropics-the Arboretum is largely maintained by master gardeners and UNICCO, with support from UM and private donors.

Cozza and his colleagues are also planning a “Festival of Medicinal Trees,” where undergraduates will contribute to the garden’s ethnobotanical catalogue by researching ‘adopted’ trees.

Of the Arboretum’s cross-cultural ethnobotanical offerings, Cozza comments, “It’s vital for practical things, too, like conservation” and is not simply “quaint folk knowledge.” He cautions that “arboretum” and “park” are not synonymous. An arboretum is a specific kind of park, whose cullings weren’t chosen by physical form.

Michelle Schroeder (the “Jungle-Fungal Fiend”) was appointed second Aldridge Assistant. She is indexing the collection’s trees, which represent over 90% of Florida’s 130 native tree species. Michelle’s work advances the Arboretum’s stated goal “to promote knowledge about and enthusiasm for biodiversity and conservation of native and tropical trees” internationally.

In the 1980s, UM wanted to make parking spaces paving parts from the Arboretum. A small committee formed to counter this and all construction, headed by Kathy Gaubatz, a housewife whose husband taught at UM’s Law School. Gaubatz used a Dr. Seuss story for support: “`Don’t tear down the Truffula trees for things nobody needs!'”

Significantly, the Arboretum is now the symbolic focal point of a campus-wide botanical plan. Three satellite plant collections currently tended are the Merrick/LC Palmetum, the Stanford/Hecht Keys Arboretum, and flowering trees throughout campus. Perhaps no one would think that an outdoor garden is remarkable, but in some northern climates, a garden is green during winter only because it’s under glass – such as New York’s Barnard.

So wander into the Arboretum. Like a superior wine, some things on campus are to be quietly yet thoroughly enjoyed.

For more information, call the Arboretum at 284-5364. Or just pay them a visit.

Tonight, the Rathskeller will play host to a fresh new rock act, Rearview Mirror, on the final stop of its first U.S. tour outside the Midwest.

Before graduating from high school, members of Rearview Mirror were already making a name for themselves in their hometown of Cresco, Iowa with their hard edge rock sound. After first hearing the band’s music, Steve Lillywhite, the King Midas of the music production industry, quickly signed on Rearview Mirror. Lillywhite is credited with tremendous success in producing record after record for well-known bands such as U2 and the Dave Mathews Band.

Rearview Mirror is the first new act to receive Lillywhite golden touch and has the honor of being the first band to be signed onto the new label.

Under Lillywhite’s wing, the band has recently completed work on its debut album, All Lights Off, which is scheduled to come out in the spring. In the album, the group channels its emotions and energy into an explosive sound, which can be described as a mixture between Creed, Staind, and Bush. “They’re probably the heaviest band I’ve ever produced,” Lillywhite, “They have melody but they certainly are a very heavy band.”

For 25 years, Lillywhite has been producing some of the biggest names in the business. In addition to Dave Mathews and U2, Lillywhite has produced records for the Rolling Stones, Phish, Travis, and Guster. Lillywhite’s name alone, associated with a band, is inspiration enough to fuel fans and critics interests alike.

After breaking his ties as an independent producer with Island and MCA records, the Grammy-winning Lillywhite started his own record production company, Gobstopper Records. Lillywhite’s reason for going independent was that he “wanted to attempt to become one of the major decision-makers in the business” rather than be the producer.

“I thought the people making the decisions were some sort of gods,” he said. “I later came to realize that they’re no better than I am.”

University of Miami students are being offered a great opportunity to a see and hear a small time band before they hit the big time. According to Graham Micone, who is coordinating Friday’s event for Hurricane Productions, Rearview Mirror “is going to be huge, … at this time next year everyone will know their name.”

The show will take place at the Rathskeller this Friday. The band will be taking the stage around 6:30 and admission for the event is free. “This is a great opportunity for UM students” says Micone, “They are young and full of energy and are sure to put on a great show.”

Get into a relationship with Alanis Morissette and you will probably end up as the theme of one of her songs. On her third studio album, Under Rug Swept, Morissette continues to tackle her relationships with men and herself via her unique blend of acute self-analysis, word play, and an engaging mix of acoustic and electronic elements.

The album, her latest since 1999’s Unplugged, marks the first time that Morissette produces an album on her own. Even without the assistance of veteran producer and overused music guru Glen Ballard, Morissette is able to exude the charm and inner-hippie that have made her previous efforts so addictive.

The album opens with a rip-roaring guitar and a verbose assault with 21 Things I Want In A Lover. The song resembles a personal ad that describes the qualities Morissette doesn’t “need” but “prefers” in her ideal mate. Despite her long list of demands, Morissette’s brand of charisma and idealism are able to make her delivery free of any hubris and the “angry white female” label she was inappropriately branded with after her breakout hit You Oughta Know.

Morissette is at her artistic peak with songs like A Man. On this haunting track she places herself in the male sex, uses religious imagery, and employs a pounding guitar to add dramatic emphasis to her lyrics. The song can be interpreted as an incarcerated man’s struggle to make sense of his life that is to be “served as a sentence.” Whatever it may be, the song goes beyond the pop music realm and hints of transcendental thinking.

One of Morissette’s flaws is the superfluous allusions to past relationships that pervade the album and render her lyrics unnecessarily vague. Without any palpable real-life examples it can be difficult to identify with many of the songs such as on Flinch, which seems to go nowhere and hints at issues she has with her father.

The tale of yet another one of Morissette’s lovers gone wrong, Narcissus, is the album’s catchiest tune. The see-saw chorus mirrors the love/hate emotions that she feels for this “mamma’s boy” who’s “a stranger to the concept of reciprocity.”

Released over the Internet after Sept. 11’s terrorist attack, the album’s final track, Utopia, is a lush hymn to peace, love, and brotherhood. Enya would approve and probably officially sponsor this soothing paean to the Elysium that Morissette, an avid philanthropist, envisions.

Morissette has always had a problem with her syntax. That’s a good thing, though. In an attempt to match every lyric to her musical arrangement, words are switched out of their proper grammatical order and produce an uncontrived effect of artistic eccentricity.

In fact, Morissette even pronounces a lot of her words differently than would most people (it might be the Canadian in her) such as on the internal rhymes of You Owe Me Nothing In Return which features Meshell Ndegeocello on bass. The optimism that pervades the music and lyrics on songs like the uplifting Surrendering is endearing and refreshing, even if it is about one of Morissette’s many men.

Morissette’s vocals prove stellar throughout the album – shifting from quavering and vulnerable, as on the confessional piano-laden That Particular Time, to bold and jovial.

Under Rug Swept is more structured and cohesive than her long-winded Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie album, but not as poignant as her masterpiece debut, Jagged Little Pill. While Morissette proves a work in progress, she is arguably one of the best singer/songwriters in the mainstream music industry and seems a safe bet to continue delivering classics like this one.

Showtime is familiar with all the buddy cop movies that have come out of Hollywood in the last 20 years. Therefore, rather than duplicating the cliches, the film has fun spoofing them, up until the last 15 minutes. This way, rather than sit through another tiresome scene when the chief orders our hero to hand over his gun and badge, we can laugh when Robert De Niro asks his chief, “What do you want me to do now? Hand over my gun and badge?”

De Niro plays Mitch Preston, a lonesome, veteran, no-nonsense officer who has a very funny opening monologue at an elementary school, talking about how he never had to choose between the red and blue wire, and what will happen if anyone breaks the law in “his city.” We also meet Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy), a younger and much louder cop who’s primary job is to put the caution tape around a crime scene, thus enabling him to turn his interests to other professions, like acting.

Enter Chase Ramsey (Rene Russo, who still looks good entering middle age) as a TV producer with plans for a new type of reality show. Ramsey sees Preston’s name all over the media after a fight with a cameraman ended with him shooting the cameraman’s lens. She knows she has the perfect cop for half of her TV show, but it is not until Preston is threatened with suspension before he agrees.

Preston’s “younger, minority-type partner” is chosen thanks to a clever improvisation scene in which Sellars has a friend help him get Ramsey’s attention. This is one of the few scenes with Russo that work, for the most part, however, her character is a clich