BEST MUSIC TO WORK TO
Hank Williams III, Soulfly, Dag
I like Hank III´s thing when he´s doing the country music, I´m not so much into his metal thing. Personally, the best show I´ve seen in the 10 years I´ve worked here was Soulfly and Dag. Dag played the old R&B music, and Soulfly did the heavy rock thing you can get into when you´re doing the security guard thing.
BEST WAY FOR BANDS TO STAY ON THE CLUB STAFF´S GOOD SIDE
Do Your Part
There are the bands that you just grow to like as people. You like it when they come through because they´re cool and you know what they´ll do to help you make things go smoothly. Bands like Avail and Guttermouth, they know what to do to make things easier on us. I like the ones who do on-stage security themselves and know how to do it, and know their crowd, so there´s no controversy, no conflict between the kids, the bands and the security.
BEST ON-THE-JOB DINNER
9 Bangkok Restaurant
I kind of like the Thai restaurant down the street. They usually walk it up, but sometimes we´ll go down there and get it if they´re busy. (State Theatre co-owner) Tony Rifugiato doesn´t mind walking down there because he kind of likes one of the nice Asian ladies who work down there. I usually order the red curry chicken and a California roll, for sushi. That´s actually the first place I ever tasted sushi. It always looked interesting, and everybody was like, ¨you need to try it,¨ and told me that was a good one to start with. I´ve tried some of the other sushi since, but I like the California roll best.
9 Bangkok, 571 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-894-5990.
BEST GYM
My House
I went out and bought all my own weights, so it´s all at my house. I like to lift heavy, so it can get to be a lot taking all that weight off and on. It´s more comfortable for me. Driving that truck all day (I also work as a delivery driver for Hughes Plumbing Supply), it would be tough to get back out and to the gym, once I get in the house. It´s easy to say, ah, I´ll just do it tomorrow. But I like to work out five days a week, Monday through Friday. I lounge on Saturday and Sunday, especially now that football season´s getting ready to start.
BEST PLACE TO RUN
TIE: Crescent Lake Area/ St. Pete Beach
Usually it´s Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; I try to cover between 2 and 3 miles each day. It used to be longer, but it ain´t like it used to be. I like running up by Crescent Lake, and when I really want to punish my legs, I go out to the beach, usually St. Pete Beach. It´s tough, running in that sand. I park my car, run a half-mile, and turn around and come back. I used to love going up to St. Pete High and running the stadium steps up there, but they started locking the gates because kids´ll be in there, get hurt on the property, and their parents will want to sue the school.
BEST NEW BUC
Joey Galloway
He´s a wide receiver; they stole him from the Dallas Cowboys. He´s still one of the fastest guys in the league, if not the fastest. I think he´ll stretch the field for ´em, open up a lot of things underneath. And now that they´ve got the no-touch rule, I think he´s the biggest pick-up that they made during the off-season.
BEST NIGHT-OFF DESTINATION
Anywhere But Another Club
We´ll go out to dinner, to the movies, to the beach or something. After you´ve worked the clubs for so long, you´ve seen it all, and you don´t want to put up with the headache. Everywhere I go, I feel like I should be doing security, and everyone else looks at me like I should be doing security. I know so many club owners, you don´t know how many times I´ve gotten asked, ¨if we get any trouble, can you help us out?¨ No, sorry, I´m not working. But I guess there´s good and bad to everything.
BEST ADVICE FOR YOUNG NFL HOPEFULS
Don´t Forget The Game Is Bigger Than You Are
The thing about football is, you´ve gotta realize there are, like, four giant steps between high school ball and college ball, and four giant steps between college ball and pro ball. You´ve gotta know that you can´t know it all. You´ve gotta be willing to be coached. If you´re willing to always learn, if you´re willing to be coached, you´ve got a much better shot. Keep your mouth quiet and play football, and you´ll learn the system.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.