This is interesting: The two men responsible for Brad Pitt’s fame are Ridley Scott and Robert Redford. It was Scott who cast Pitt as the blonde bombshell who tempts Thelma and Louise in, duh, Thelma & Louise. Redford came along and gave Pitt one of his first leading roles in A River Runs Through It. It’s been almost ten years since then, and now Redford and Pitt are finally on screen together in a film directed by Ridley’s brother, Tony.

Robert Redford, looking older than water, plays Nathan Muir, an experienced CIA agent who is on his last day on the job. He’s all set to turn in his stuff and go to the Bahamas to enjoy his last years on earth, when he gets wind of some bad news. Tom Bishop, the man he trained into a great undercover agent, got arrested in China on a non-sponsored CIA operation and is being held hostage for espionage, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Relations between the United States and China are not too good, and the CIA is looking for any reason to just let Bishop rot. So they call up Muir to clue them in on why Bishop turned rogue, and Muir offers his story on how he recruited and trained Bishop through a series of flashbacks.

Now usually, when a movie is told in flashbacks, it’s just a cheap gimmick to give unnecessary back story, but here it works. The flashbacks are filmed well and they clue us in to Muir and Bishop’s teacher/student relationship. Muir teaches his young prot

Ryan Adams’ mainstream success couldn’t have come at a better time. With a hit single that has become almost an anthem of hope for the people of NYC, aptly titled “New York, New York”, a new power pop group called The Virgins, and the recently released album “Gold,” it seems like he has the keys to stardom.

What took him so long?

A couple of months ago, only people with a taste for the indie folk rock scene knew who Ryan Adams, (not to be confused with the Canadian singer with an extra B on the name), was.

Although he released four critically acclaimed albums with his former band Whiskeytown, and an impressive solo effort, “Heartbreaker,” America was too involved with simple-minded, bubblegum pop to even take notice. But as times change and trends come and go, good music prevails. Perhaps that explains all the buzz that surrounds Adams all of a sudden.

One of the most admired singer-songwriter-performers of this generation, the North Carolina native, is able to combine the bluesy feel of country and folk, with his admiration of punk power chords, to create his own signature sound.

This is noise that is enjoyable to all sorts of ears: pop, country, ballad and rock equally. With “Heartbreaker” it was more of the artist trying to find himself, but “Gold” is a huge step for him to make more mature music that matters to everyone, including himself.

Following the recording of Whiskeytown’s final album “Pneumonia” this year, the band dismantled, giving Adams the opportunity to focus on his own solo projects. “Gold” broke through months later taking music journalists and fans by surprise.

“I’m giving myself a chance to look at everything around me and not just be the victim,” he explains. “A lot of the subject matter [in the album] is more of me describing things as trying to make sense of them as opposed to just talking about what goes down and the emotions I feel.”

Adams is also busy with a new project called The Virgins, that features Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist Melissa Aur der Mauf (ex-Hole member), and which will go into the studio later this year and the beginning of the next. Plus, he already has more than a dozen songs lined up for his next solo record.

There is nothing that Ryan Adams lacks that is necessary for a true rock hero and visionary on his way. He has the talent, experience, creativity, and style to take him to the top. Not only does his album deserve its name, but his music is golden as well.

Today

Sub Pop Recording Artist Love is Laughter with special guest Enon at Revolver. Doors open at 10 p.m.. Tickets $8. For info, call 305-661-9099.

Tomorrow

“The 2001 Buzz Bake Sale” tour at Mars Music Amphitheater. Featured artists will include Disturbed, Adema, Static-X, Stroke 9, and Tantric, among others. For info or tickets, visit www.marsmusicamp.com

Auditions at Taboo in Orlando for Real World 12 and Road Rules 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. MTV representatives will be looking for participants aged 18-24. Those auditioning are asked to bring a non-returnable photo.

“Distance is the Monster Tour” with punk rockers The Deviates and The Line at Freeze. Tickets are $8. For info, call 954-771-3008.

November 30

Macy Gray kicks off “The ID” tour at BillBoard Live. Show starts at 8 p.m. For info, visit www.billboardlive.com.

November 31

Ginuwine at Bayfront Park Amphitheatre. Show starts at 8 p.m. For info, visit www.ticketmaster.com

December 4

Def Jam recording artist Dj Clue at Florida Atlantic University Gymnasium. Doors open at 7 p.m. For info, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

December 7

Trans Am, Of Montreal, See Venus, Panda Bite and other artists at the Polish American Club. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15.
For info, visit www.epoplife.com.

New York City hardcore legends Sick of It All at Freeze. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets $12. For info, call 954-771-3008.

December 8

Zeta’s Nutcracker Ball, featuring Nickelback, Saliva and Default at SMT. Tickets $15, for info, visit www.zetarocks.com.

January 15-20

The Rocky Horror Show at Jackie Gleason. Call 305-673-7300 for info.

What a tangle web we’ve weaved over the internet. Foolish mortals and wannabe immortals alike have logged on and surfed the Net so many times by now that not even a decade since the Internet became a common feature in a majority of American households, every fabulous freak of nature, obsessed fan, clandestine cult, and person with too much time on their hands can call a place of their own home on the world wide web.
Here are a few of the most bizarre and interesting sites the Internet has to offer for those caught in a perpetual state of ennui. So click, copy, paste, and link up your buddies to some of the kitschiest sites around:

Krazy Kitties
www.konstruktiv.net/kitty_02.html
If the ominous background music, fierce fangs, and hypnotic strobe-light eyes don’t scare you – nothing will!

Dear Diary
www.diaryland.com
www.diary-x.com
Post your personal memoirs on the web, for all or none to see, using an easy-to-understand setup. The sites’ raging popularity goes beyond high school friends checking up on each other; these insightful diaries can become addictive. Check out Uncle Bob and his army of online diary friends at Diaryland.

Down With Times New Roman!
www.fontface.com
Spice up your school projects, personal website and e-mail with a vast world of different fonts. This site has retro fonts and Hollywood-inspired fonts. And forget the alphabet – the site includes fonts where each key is a different cartoon.

Rubber Chickens For All!
www.mcphee.com
Hailing from the epicenter of what’s going to be cool next, Archie McPhee’s site lets you check out the kookiest, coolest toys and gadgets from their store in Seattle. The site allows you to sign up for a free fun catalog filled with rubber devil ducks and goldfish shower curtains.

Clueless Chatter
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5342/Clueless.htm
“Whatever!”
“Uh, AS IF!”
“Wow! You guys talk like grown ups.”
Maybe they didn’t talk exactly like grown-ups, but you can sure try to by borrowing some of the pretentious vocabulary used “sporadically” by Alicia Silverstone and crew in “Clueless” by perusing this site. Compiled by a Silverstone-afficionado, the site features the entire script of the now-classic 1995 Amy Heckerling movie accompanied by some endearing still-frames from the film.

Unlike the gritty, socio-political fury of the East Coast punk and hardcore scene, its West Coast counterpart produces a lighter, cleaner blend of punk influenced by the surf and skate community of California, and in most instances, burns on teenage attention spans rather than the need to discuss life’s tribulations.

The Line’s “Monsters We Breed” is a promising release from a close-knit four member punk band based out of Big Bear Lake, Calif. Their fourth album for Volcom Entertainment, (a record label subsidiary of the popular youth driven clothing company) personifies the label’s attempt to stray away from redundant, speed driven punk in favor of bands that can craft an eccentric and fairly abstract sound and still express the genre’s anti-establishment roots.

“We pride ourselves on originality, quality, and the true definition of punk, something that is radical and unorthodox. Our main goals are to remain independent from any outside influences and to take care of our bands,” said Ryan Immegart, a co-founder of Volcom Entertainment and member of The Line.

“Monsters We Breed” flirts with an occasional pop flavor, yet many of the songs possess intriguing bridges and the album’s choruses achieve a fluid urgency highlighting the album’s apt production by Steve Kravac, a member of Ten Foot Pole.

The title of the record is a metaphor describing the band’s passion for writing and playing music.

“It has become a monster. It controls our lives in every way. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but either way our life lessons become the songs we write,” Immegart said.

Lyrics to songs like “The Earthworm Crisis” and “Heartattack” hint at an almost semi-existential quality in their messages about appreciating life and friendship, done with just enough candidness and honesty to separate The Line from bands that write similar songs merely to pick up chicks.

While such emotional subject matter is common with Emo-core, the current punk movement is mainly divided into bands that reside within the fatalistic gutters of anarchy and alcoholism, cater to the Farrelly Brothers’ audience, or quickly become trapped in a wad of corporate bubblegum.

Regardless of whether you personally like this album, The Line has undeniably put together 11 songs that drift quickly through the tide of human experience and offer a fresh take on the rebellious energy and concerns of punk rock.

In what may be surprising to some of their fans, The Line is rumored to be in the midst of a deal with MCA records, a move that may challenge their tightly held ambitions and DIY beliefs.

With “Monsters We Breed” demonstrating the group’s future potential and artistic direction, a major label release will prove if they can maintain the difficult balance between mainstream popularity and original credibility, something Volcom has done considerably well at, as both a clothing company and a (still remaining) independent record label.

The Line will be opening for the Deviates tomorrow at Freeze in Fort Lauderdale as part of the “Distance is a Monster Tour.”

What was once a game room full of battered and worn billiard and ping-pong tables has now transformed into a futuristic, hip caf