Shawn Gatta applies some elbow grease to a car at Detail Doctor in Shrewsbury. (Photo by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)

By EVAN SOLTAS

Shawn Gatta has spent more than half of his life in the auto-detailing business. The owner and manager of the Detail Doctor on Broad Street in Shrewsbury, Gatta, 42, has been bringing out the best in the cars of his customers since he was a teenager in Neptune.

Since then, it’s kept him so busy that when he’s tried to pursue other fields — real estate, for one — he’s found himself lured back by the “first love” he found in detailing.

“There are other things I would like to do,” said Gatta, “but I’m so consumed by this business.” He’s had a real estate license since he was 19, but he’s never found a spare moment to make a single sale or listing.

Earlier this week, redbankgreen stole some time with Gatta’s lunch break – he works 66 hours a week, by his count – for some insights into the life of a clean-car obsessive.

What drew you to cars at such a young age?

Well, believe it or not, it was just a passion of mine when I was probably about eleven or twelve years old. I just loved cars, and I was waxing my parents’ cars and my brother’s car – for free, most likely – and my neighbor, Adam Boren, asked me to wax his car, and he was my first ever paying customer, I would say when I was fifteen years old.

I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the result that I got from the finishing of detailing a car. I went from one neighbor to another neighbor to another neighbor, and I ended up when I was fifteen or sixteen years old I was walking door to door cleaning everyone’s car in the neighborhood.

So was it at first a family thing?

No, my father didn’t know how to wax a car. My father actually had his car waxed at a place in Asbury Park, and I remember, you know, him coming home, and I saw the car, and I was blown away by how shiny it was. It was a brown Cadillac, and this is going back to like 1980, and it came back looking so beautiful that it interested me. No, my father was in the insurance business. He knew nothing about waxing cars. I learned on my own.

Was there a moment when you realized that you wanted to keep doing this as a career?

I would say yes. I went to college when I was 17 – I was very young for my grade — so I started my college career, which lasted two months at Fairleigh Dickinson in Madison, and when I dropped out of college, I came home and told my mother that I just wanted to detail cars, and she thought I was out of my mind.

You’ve run your business in many ways — going door to door, working out of your car, leasing a building, owning a building. What kinds of lessons have come through that sort of process?

I had a very specific situation where our landlord at our one location doubled our rent after the first year, and I swallowed that, but then after the second year I didn’t learn my lesson, so for the third year he doubled it again, which basically made me – and this is a true story – have to move out of the building, since I could not afford it, and I was out of the building for three days and they opened up the [name of competitor redacted], which was owned by the landlord, and his idea was to steal my business. It came with some good lessons: sign a longer lease, have options in your lease.

Also, my business used to be 75 or 80 percent wholesale – car dealerships — and most of it was one particular dealership. That was a bad idea, because I put all of my eggs in one basket. If they said ‘jump,’ I would have to say ‘how high.’ I went from being at mercy to them to having approximately 7,000 customers that I answer to. I have 7,000 bosses now.

You have a reputation among customers of always being in the building. What keeps you here?

I have a very personal passion for running my company. Other than being with my family, I’d rather be here: I’d rather be here than playing golf, I’d rather be here than sitting on the beach, I’d rather be here than at a bar. I like being here. This is a very happy business. My clients, when we’re done with their cars, are happy. They’re excited. ‘Wow – I love that.’

I mean, this isn’t the dentist’s office, it isn’t the insurance office. Who wants to pay their insurance? When my father was collecting money from people, I’m sure they weren’t very happy to pay their insurance. Who wants to pay their insurance? And that’s it – I enjoy my employees, I enjoy being here, and I enjoy the detailing process. Taking a car from looking very weathered after two, three, four years of use and making it look like it just came off the showroom floor, there’s a challenge there, and we accomplish it 99.9 percent of the time, so it’s satisfying.

Do you detail your own car, and what are you looking for if you do?

Me personally? Do I detail my own car? No, I don’t detail any cars anymore. I don’t have the time to clean my own car. I’m not saying I wouldn’t, I’m just saying that I don’t have the time. When my employees clean my car, which they do on a regular basis, they know how I like it – to perfection. And what kind of car do I drive? I drive a Range Rover, but I don’t know what bearing that has. I always have a dark-colored car, because that looks the best waxed.

Is there a fun car to detail?

I don’t look at the business that way – it’s always the challenge of taking a car from not looking great to looking great. We’ve done almost every car in the world – when I say almost, I mean obviously I haven’t done Ralph Lauren’s collection. I do Bruce Springsteen‘s collection, and I do a bunch of cars for Bon Jovi. I think it was fun the first time I did a car for Springsteen, you know.

I think maybe more of a customer, like when I did John Mulheren‘s cars, can be fun, because he was passionate about what we were doing to his motorcycles and all of those crazy cars he had. He had like a fire engine and some other things that were very interesting. It’s more the client, and not so much the car.

Can you tell anything about a person when you work on his car?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we have found everything in cars from A to Z, and I’m not mentioning what, but you know, there’s been time we’ve had to call customers, and tell them to come down. But every car shows a person’s personality. Every car.

Do you consider yourself a detail-oriented person?

Absolutely. As anal as they come.

Every part of my financial life is in detailed order, as is any other portion of my life you could imagine. If you go look at my desk or through my files, everything is always in order.

Is detailing recession-proof?

We have found it to be. We’ve been in business through two recessions, I think, and the late 80s weren’t great – everyone seemed to be complaining about money, but my business was great. And that all passed, and now we’ve been in a recession for the past five or four years, or at least it seems like that, but we set new record last year and this year we’re going to beat it. So is it recession-proof? I can only guess and say yes.

Finally, what’s most important: a clean car, comfy shoes, or good food?

Well, it’s definitely not comfortable shoes, ’cause I would live in flip-flops, and they are definitely not that comfortable. They’re comfortable to me, but maybe not to anybody else.

And then to decide between a clear car and good food… I love good food, so I don’t know. It’s a coin toss to me. I mean, I love a clean car, but I love a good meal. Could I drive around in a dirty car and go to great restaurants? That’s basically what I have to ask myself.

I’d probably go with the food – I wouldn’t tell a customer that, I’d rather have a customer want a clean car, but I love food that much, over the clean car probably.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

At about six feet tall, with his always-on mascara and mop of jet black hair tousled just-ever-so, Blaise Lucarelli was made to stand out in a crowd.

“My parents named me Blaise, so I was destined to be different,” he tells redbankgreen‘s Human Bites.

Different? How? Well, it can hardly be reduced to words. One must experience Blaise, a larger-than-life Red Bank native and aspiring fashionista now working — and, he’s the first to tell you, performing — at Dor L’Dor, a womenswear shop on Broad Street.

On hiatus from the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising to gain experience in the fashion industry, the Red Bank Catholic alum returned to the borough  after taking a couple years to live in New York, where he says he really started to feel comfortable with who he was. While there, he had a beauty mark tattooed next to his right eye.

“My mother always told me, ‘know your audience,’ ” he says. “I’m never going to change who I am, but I can change the level or degree of who I am.”

Name: Blaise Lucarelli

Age: 24

Town of residence: Ocean

Job: Right now I’m the acting assistant manager at Dor L’Dor, and I also do the visuals for this store in Hoboken, and I also act as a liaison working with a buyer to assist her in the merchandising.

Is Blaise your real name? It is my real name, Blaise.

What was it like growing up Blaise? I loved it. It helped form my personality, because people had not really not heard of it that often. It’s something that set me apart, and it kind of set me up for the position I like. I always said that I’m more comfortable on stage in front of the crowd than in the crowd. It’s just become who I am.

Definitely the things and the people that inspire me and that I gravitate to are all that kind of person, that standalone, individual kind of a person — Marilyn Monroe, Christina Aguilera, Dita Von Teese — all of these people are very, very strong personalities. And you have to be fearless in your choices, be it life choices, fashion choices, anything like that. Because it’s about fulfilling who you are and living who you are without the worry of judgment.

Tell us about the path that brought you to this point in your life. I definitely would say that my experiences, maybe good or bad, have shaped who I am. I’ve always been different and it all kind of has been fate. You know, my parents named me Blaise, so it kind of has always been destined to be different, to be who I am. And I was a sponge. I take in everything that interests me and make it part of who I am, and it’s become part of my personality. It’s almost like as a character actor, you take in what you see and you make it into your personality.

I left school because I wanted to get into the business and I came across this job, and it turned into something absolutely wonderful. I definitely thought that maybe I was going to be just a salesperson, and our owner, who is unbelievable, really noticed my talent and the possibilities that I had and is really running with it. And I think that’s definitely a part of the appeal of our store, the fact that it’s so genius-ly executed.

Favorite accessory? I’m a big necklace person. Chains right now are big, studs are really good. I also am really enjoying lucite, like plastics and ropes. I like cuffs. Boots are really hot this season. I sometimes wear huge, oversized round glasses. Everything. And I also love making things that are not clothing or jewelry into jewelry. Like string, wrapping it around your hand and making it something like that. I once wore a duct tape roll and painted on it and made it into a bracelet. It’s definitely about making things that aren’t something something.

Name your top three fashion ‘must haves.’ A good pair of jeans, mascara, and draped — this is such a hard question — some sort of draped tank top or shirt or something with exaggeration. A top with exaggeration. And a pair of boots.

What is the absolute last thing in the world you would wear? There is nothing. There’s nothing I wouldn’t wear. I’ve made a shirt out of a pillow case before. You know, I think that garbage bags are underused in fashion.

Who’s your fashion muse? Strong, chamelion-like women: Christina Aguilera, Dita Von Teese, Marilyn Monroe, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

What? Because they bring hobo. They make poor people look glamorous by spending a million dollars. I also love David Bowie — he’s fantastic — Freddie Mercury. All of them. Push the boundaries. I bet you everyone thought I was going to say Lady GaGa.

Maybe, yeah. I love her but it’s become popular.

Would you wear meat? Yeah. It depends on the outfit, though. It’s probably not good for your skin. Your pores would probably tighten and all, but you’d probably smell and get some form of E. Coli on your skin.

Ru Paul or ESPN? ESPN. RuPaul is fantastic. I feel like that question is a little stereotypical, like, Oh, he’s gay, so let’s ask about RuPaul. No, ESPN.

Do you have a favorite team or a favorite sport? Baseball, and of course the Yankees.

Leather or Lace? Both. No choice. You can’t.

Barbie or Ken? Both. It’d be a fun time.

What’s more important, good shoes or good food? Good shoes, because it’s just important to have good shoes so that you can work off whatever you’re eating. And plus, what you eat, in my opinion, I feel that what you wear speaks more of who you are than what you eat. A lot of people will eat anything without any question or concern. But it takes a real person to choose what they wear, because some people are close-minded and they won’t be as open to clothes as they are to food.

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

For 30 years, Fairwinds Deli has been serving up belly-busting lunches in Fair Haven. By the end of the summer, the aprons and slicers will be boxed up and moved out. But this is nothing to lose your lunch over. Really. Owner Warren Abrahamson is riding a zephyr, not a squall, out of 770 River Road. Abrahamson tells redbankgreen he’s renovating property just a short walk away, at 698 798 River Road, and will open a new and improved Fairwinds Deli.

“It’ll be bigger. It’ll be my own,” said Abrahamson, 46.

In this edition of Human Bites, redbankgreen sits down with Abrahamson, of Middletown, to feed him some questions.

What’s your background? How did you come to own the deli?
I went to Holmdel High School, graduated in 1982. I did sheetrocking, sheet-rocked houses for about three years, and between that I worked for my father on and off because he owned the deli. He bought the deli in 1980, so I was 16. I used to work weekends here. Then he had an accident, he broke his leg. So I had to come in here and help him run the show. So I did that, and after he got better, I had stayed. Then he passed away and I just took it over to help my mother out. Since then, I bought it, so I’ve owned it since 1990.

Did you have a favorite neighborhood deli growing up?
There was what used to be called the Pioneer Store in Hazlet. I used to ride my bicycle there because I was from Holmdel. It was just mainly a small grocery store, had candy, so we had visited it.

Describe your typical morning routine.
We start at 7. We do, during the school year, prepare school lunches for the Fair Haven kids. They call between 7 and 9, so pretty much I’m answering phones for two hours.

Yes, I hear it ringing off the hook now.
Well school is out, so this is just business. So after we take the orders, we have two hours to make them. Then we get done with the school lunches at 11 and them we prep for regular lunch. Then after lunch hour we get the school kids in for their snacks, then we close at 5.

“Wish You Were Here!” Fairwinds Deli customers send Abrahamson postcards of their travels. (Click to enlarge)

Are kids a big part of your clientele?
Kids have become big. I guess with everything. It used to be work crews, now it’s work kids. Work crews have depleted.

Who makes the sandwiches at home?
We don’t eat sandwiches at home (laughs). Sandwiches are for lunch and I’m here at lunch. We don’t have sandwiches at night for dinner. My kids always made their own lunch growing up, so if they wanted to eat they’d make their own lunch, since the first grade. But they’re basic, you know, cheese on white. It’s real basic.

Does Fairwinds use any secret family recipes?
You never like to give up your secrets. People ask all the time, what’s in this? What’s in that? I had one friend watch me, he stood there in the kitchen for a half-hour, then he goes, “Now I know” (laughs). So he found out how to make chicken pillows.

Chicken what?
Chicken pillows. It’s like a chicken cordon bleu but it’s baked instead of fried. He goes, “Now I know.” He jokes about it all the time.

What’s the oddest deli combination ever requested?
Well it’s not odd, it’s just become popular. They call it The Diesel. It’s chicken, bacon and cheddar, barbecue sauce and honey mustard, hot peppers, lettuce and tomato. It’s a pretty big sandwich.

Have you ever served a celebrity?
We used to have Dr. Ruth coming in for a while. It was kind of fun having her come in here, and people asking her the sex questions. We had Geraldo when he used to be on the river. We used to do catering for his film crew, when he used to do the shoots at his house. We had Bruce Springsteen a few times. When he came in he was looking for these baby bottle pops — it was a candy, like a pacifier you dipped into sugar. He said (to his children) “Yeah, if you guys want these bottle pops, you’ve got to sing the song.” He made his kids sing the baby bottle pops song. It was cute. That was years ago, too. Then one time he came in for lunch and I guess a few of the kids saw he was here and they must’ve ran back to the playground and said Bruce is in the deli. And then I must’ve been flooded with 20 kids. He signed all their autographs. It was nice.

What are your least and most favorite deli chores?
This is my way of life. There’s nothing here I don’t like doing. I know people working here, there’s certain things they don’t like, like cleaning the grease traps. The best part has got to be counting the money at the end of the day.

Do you have an indispensable deli gadget?
It’s a tough one. We need our knives, our slicer. Refrigeration. Is that a gadget? Plenty of times Fair Haven loses power. That’s a gadget you can’t do without.

Farthest location Fairwinds has gotten a postcard from?
I guess it would be the China Wall over there. They’re from all over the world. Russia, Japan, Taiwan. They’re from my customersY I joked with them, I’d say “you’re going away? Send me a postcard.” And they did. They started sending them, so I started putting them up.

What deli sandwich would you take with you to a deserted island?
I would take the Italian combo.

Why?
Because it’s cold. It’s crisp. It’s just satisfying.

What’s more important, good shoes or good food?
Good shoes. Well you’re on your feet all day. You’re not going to enjoy your lunch if your feet are hurting.

There are only so many old-style, independent butchers left in Red Bank.

There’s Ralph ‘Johnny Jazz‘ Gatta on Shrewsbury Avenue, of course, working the chopping block for some 60 years. The guys at Citarella’s Meats & Deli on Prospect Avenue. And smack in between them, Stew Goldstein of Monmouth Meats, on Monmouth Street opposite the Count Basie Theatre.

A Brooklyn native who now lives in East Brunswick, Goldstein, 53, has been in the trade since he was a teenager. And to revive its long-dormant Human Bites feature, redbankgreen took a few minutes recently to ask Goldstein about a lifetime of swing a meat cleaver.

Did you always know this is what you wanted to do for a living?

Yes. I never had any other jobs. This is what I enjoy. My father had a small family-style neighborhood store in downtown Brooklyn. He was in business for about 45 years.

Do you remember your first interaction with a side of beef?

My first interaction was when I was maybe eight, nine years old. I went to the wholesale market with my father.

What was that experience like for a kid?
You walk into a huge, refrigerated warehouse. The floor was wet and dirty — things weren’t as clean as they are now. You had the carcasses, you got the smells. It was something I said I would never do. But I did. I knew nothing else.

Ready to serve: Goldstein outside his shop on Monmouth Street.

Did your father give you any words of wisdom to take the fear out of that first trip?

No. My father would say, ‘Just do it. It’s not going to bite you. It’s dead.’

I recall that you’ve had a series of jobs in this industry.

I took over my father’s store after he retired and had that for about 10 years. Then I opened a store in East Brunswick. Sold that and opened up a store in Aberdeen. Sold that and went back to East Brunswick. Then I worked for a chain of Korean-owned produce and fish markets and ran the deli operations for them for about three years. And then I came here.

So where does ‘Stew’ come from? Is that a name you gave yourself?

[Flummoxed] No, that’s my name!

I thought it was Lenny!

No. Stewart Goldstein. Lenny is the name I use when I don’t want to be bothered by people on the phone. So if telemarketers or whatever call trying to sell paper goods or lightbulbs and ask for the name of the owner, I tell them Lenny. So this way, if they call back, I know it’s somebody I can avoid.

I guess I should have gotten the hint. Do people assume, as I did, that Stew is a good nickname for a butcher?

No, I don’t think too many people think about that. It is weird, though, right?

So what’s the biggest change you’ve seen in consumer tastes over the years?

I think what happened is people have gone into the supermarkets in the past few years, especially with the prices of raw product getting so expensive, they realize the taste has gotten so bad that people are coming back to the small butcher, or I hope they are. They realize the taste is so much better and that the prices aren’t that different. It can even be cheaper.

How do you like your steak?

Medium rare, the fattier the better.

You’re going against the AMA’s recommendation?

I’m telling you what I like. 

Who buys things like liver and brains these days?

Organ meat — people eat that. Not as much as they used to because doctors say stay away, especially if you have high cholesterol. Old timers, that’s all they used to buy, I guess because it was cheap.

You’re across the street from the theater. Ever get any big names in here?

Occasionally yes. Rick Derringer was in here. He’s a vegetarian. He bought some potato salad. Then he went next door [to the Eurasian Eatery] to eat.

Did he take his potato salad into the restaurant?

I don’t know. I didn’t ask.

Is this sized butcher shop an endangered species?

I think if overhead is kept to a limit, if the rents don’t go crazy, it can survive.

Finally, which is more important, good food or comfortable shoes?

That’s a silly question. Shoes are so important, especially if you’re on your feet all day, but you’ve gotta have good food.

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Earlier this year, 39-year-old Billy K. Sims became the 50th bowler elected to the Monmouth County USBC Bowling Association Hall of Fame, a 73-year-old organization. A six-foot-five lefty who lives in the Oak Hill section of Middletown, Sims was county Bowler of the Year in 2001. He’s rolled 35 perfect games, 24 series of 800, and tallied 11-strikes-in-a-row 10 times.

We met up with Sims recently at Memory Lanes in Red Bank and watched him knock down our ten Human Bites questions without breaking a sweat.

What do you do for a living?
I’m a printer at a business forms company in Cranford.

Do you bowl for prize money?
Yeah, there’s pots and prize money in the leagues, stuff like that. Not a lot. Just enough to keep you going. If you bowl really well, depending on the league, you can walk out at the end of a night with a couple hundred bucks. You basically want to win enough to keep paying for it, so you don’t have any out-of-pocket money. That’s basically all I try to do.

I bowled one PBA stop like 10 years ago at Carolier. It was a lot of fun. You realize how good those guys really are.

I know people who can still describe in some detail the first time they entered a movie theater, or the first time they entered Yankee Stadium. Do you remember your first experience of walking into a bowling alley?
No, not at all. It was so long ago. It was probably when I was about five that my uncle took me. There were probably lots of cigarettes back then. Since I was 9, I’ve been bowling.

Are you a competitive guy?
Ugh. Yeah. Very competitive. Losing’s not bad. If I lose because of my own doing, I get mad at myself. But you can’t really get mad at anybody else. I second-guess myself a lot.

Do you dream about bowling?
No. No. Once I’m outside the bowling alley, I try not to think about it, because I am so competitive, I don’t want to think about it or even talk about it. Last year, I was in a bowling alley like four nights a week. It’s basically you get home from work, you shower, and you go bowling. It gets to be too much.

So I guess you don’t have bowling nightmares.
I have more nightmares about it than dreams. You get beat in a tournament, and you just relive it over and over again. But nothing major.

If you’re not watching someone bowl, can you tell if they hit a strike or a spare by the sound?
You can tell if they hit the pocket well. You can leave a lot of corner pins if you throw it well. But you can definitely tell if somebody throws it well. It’s a lot louder.

How much does your ball weigh?
Sixteen pounds, that’s the max. It’s got a good hook. People tell me I throw a big hook. That’s a good thing. As long as you can control it, that’s a good thing. What it does is create a better angle to hit the pokect. Bowling’s basically geometry. You just have to figure out angles to carry the corner pins. The corner pins are the tough ones. For righties it’s the ten pin, for lefties it’s the seven pin.

What are your goals as a bowler now?
Growing up, I wanted to shoot 300, and I wound up doing that by the time I was 20. Then it was to bowl 800 — that’s averaging 267 over three games; 800 is harder, because you have to bowl well over three games, even if you have a miss, whereas for a 300 you only have to bowl well for one game. Let’s see, then I won titles, then bowler of the year, and now the hall of fame. That was definitely a goal. It means a lot to me. It’s an honor, if there are only 50 people in it.

Now I just try to bowl with my friends in the tournaments and win titles. Other than that, I don’t really have goals.

Finally, which is more important, comfortable shoes or good food?
Look at the size of me! I’m going to have to say good food.

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Keith Glass is a 56-year-old Red Bank-based pro basketball agent who’s got some withering views about the state of the NBA, its players, and even the role played by people who do what he does for a living.

He lays it all out in “Taking Shots: Tall Tales, Bizarre Battles and the Incredible Truth about the NBA,” published this week by HC, an imprint of HarperCollins. (Glass will be at the Barnes & Noble in Holmdel signing copies on Monday. See below for details.)

redbankgreen caught up earlier this week with Glass at his Rumson home, which he shares with his wife, former Turkish pro hoopster and sportscaster Aylin Guney Glass. We put him through the ten-question Human Bites drill.

You write in your book that NBA games are boring, ticket prices are sky-high, the players make way too much money, and they have a ridiculous sense of entitlement. How much of this is a matter of individual character?
I don’t think too much. There are some character issues to it, but as I say in the book, I think it’s an unnatural infusion of money into the human body. Anybody who makes this kind of money at a very young age, it comes to a point where you don’t know how to act, and nobody can tell you how to act. Because our system is based on money, and the person with the money does the talking.

You can’t coach these kids. You can’t teach them, because everything they were supposed to work for, you’ve given it to them up front. And that’s not the way to do it. Do you ever pay before you have your lawn mowed? I don’t. Mow the lawn, and then I’m going to pay you.

We’ve reversed the process, so reverse it back. Don’t guarantee people for six years at a time, for six, seven, eight million a year. I think it’s a disincentive to work. You know, there are very few Michael Jordans, or Larry Birds, or Magic Johnsons. We’re treating these guys like they have that character. And that kind of character is not normal.

Tell me about the genesis of the book. How did it come about?
Things happen to me that don’t seem to happen to other people, or I remember them differently. People always just seemed to enjoy me telling them the stories. So I started to write them down, maybe ten years ago, for myself, for my kids [Glass has five], so I could save my sanity.

In this room, 10 years ago, I wrote the first one, about Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf [a client and Denver Nuggets star who caused a scandal by stretching on the floor during the playing of the national anthem]. That was a very poignant, dramatic time for me, and hurtful, because I ended up getting terminated as his agent. And I remember that after I got it down, I just felt great. I thought, ‘You don’t have to remember it anymore. You don’t have to carry it anymore.’ And each time I do that, it’s like freeing up space on your brain.

The writing’s been fun. No ghostwriter. They asked me if I could give them 100,000 words in my own words, the way I talk.

One of the distinguishing elements of your 28-year career has been your representation of white guys who play center. You call the chapter about this “Eighty-one Feet of White Centers.” Do you specialize in Joe Palookas?

Joe Palookas, yeah, but you can’t be a specialist, you have to adapt. I represented big white centers because early on that’s all that I could get. Then I had a stage in my career when I had all point guards. Whatever you can do, you have to survive.

One of your clients, Mark Eaton, the seven-foot-five center of the Utah Jazz, somehow made the transition from auto mechanic to college benchwarmer — under you, when you were coaching at UCLA with Larry Brown — to NBA all-star. Was Eaton your most satisfying discovery?
I think him and [now-Chicago Bulls coach] Scott Skiles. Really, it’s hard to pick. I’ve had great guys.

My guys have not been the prima donnas of the league. I don’t get stars. That’s why I’ve been able to survive. I’m not willing to do what it takes in the first place to get them as clients. I’m not willing get cars for them. I don’t buy my children cars, so I’m not going to buy a player a car.

You say that the players are overpaid. By extension, you must be as well, no?
Oh, there’s no question. I ought to be on the post office wall in Red Bank, that’s where my picture should be. But I’ve been saying this for 25 years: We’re stealing money.

Don’t get me wrong, they wanna pay me, I’m gonna take it. But you gotta be kidding me: You get $6 million to play basketball? Ten million to play basketball, and I get a percentage of that? And I’m gonna sit here, look you in the face and tell you I’m not overpaid? Of course we’re overpaid. But you guys are paying for it.

Are you concerned this book might have professional repercussions for you or your clients?
I don’t know. Obviously, it’s published, so I guess not.

I just hope people will see it for what it is. I’m trying to help a game I love. I coached Mater Dei High School [in Middletown] for 12 years; I coached Rumson for two years. I made 17 cents an hour. I’ve paid my dues. I love the game. I don’t like seeing it the way it is. I want to try to get it back to the way it was.

You grew up on Long Island. How did you end up in the Red Bank area?
I was moving back to New York from L.A. after becoming an attorney. But I couldn’t afford anything in New York, and kept drawing concentric circles around the city until I found something I could afford, and I ended up in Middletown. I’ve been in this area 20 years now.

Your wife, Aylin, played professionally in Turkey. How do you match up on the court?
She can’t beat me. She thinks she can. She’ll even deny that we played once and I beat her. She just blocked it out. Because she’s a pro in her country, and she plays an old man here, and I won, and she just can’t deal with it. [To his wife:] It never happened, did it honey?

If there were to be a movie based on your book, who would play Keith Glass?
It would have to be a very, very good-looking guy, obviously. I don’t know who they could possibly get. Somebody suggested Adam Sandler, but I don’t think he’s attractive enough. I’m gonna hold out for Brad Pitt. That would be closer.

Finally, which is more important, good food or comfortable shoes?
Good food. You can take your shoes off.

Meet Keith Glass
Monday, March 5, 7p
Barnes & Noble
2134 Highway 35 South
Holmdel
732-275-0620

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Ten questions for John and Rachel Decker, owners of Graman’s Vacuum & Appliance Parts Co. on Monmouth Street, at the corner of West Street. They live in Tinton Falls.

How long have you owned this business, and who had it before you?
John: We’ve been here for four years. I bought it from Gene Graman—“Uncle Gene,” though he’s no blood relation whatsoever. When I was growing up in River Plaza, Gene was the older guy in the neighborhood who never got married and had all the toys and all the fun: boats, motorcycles, Jet skis, snowmobiles, wave runners. My parents knew him before I was even born.

His shop was in Red Bank for 47 years, and in this location since 1964. He was previously closer to Broad on Monmouth Street. And surprisingly, there was a parking problem then, too.

He’s the landlord now, and that’s one of the reasons the business still exists—there isn’t a ridiculous rent we have to pay.

Rachel: It’s not cheap, but it is fair.

We understand you have every one of his financial ledgers going back to the beginning. What kind of story do they tell?
John: The story they tell is that people can say what they want about money and politics, but when national events occur, it affects the way they spend.

Rachel: When things are tough, people get things fixed. They’re not out buying left and right. But through all those years, through wars or economic crisis, this business has survived. Whether it be from sales or repairs, something floats us and keeps us in business.

How much did a vacuum cleaner sell for in the early days, and what do they go for now?
John: An average Hoover could have sold for $19 or $20 in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and even all the way up into the early ‘80s. You can still get a regular machine for $29.99 or $59.99, but there’s no quality in it whatsoever. If you’re going to compare quality, an Electrolux in the late 1950s sold for $300, and that was a lot of money then. Now, for the top Electrolux, you’re looking at a thousand bucks or more.

Have the machines changed much over the decades?
Rachel: Mostly filtration. People are really concerned about air quality and allergies. Before, you just had your bag and what came out, came out. Now people are into HEPA filters.

John: Most machines were metal back then, and the quality was a lot better—the craftsmanship of the motors, the factories were better set up. Now, it’s planned obsolescence.

How do you two divide the duties here?
John: I put Rachel in charge of all administrative work. But she does know how to repair vacuum cleaners. She’s a trained technician.

Rachel: I put on my apron, my gloves. I’ve even got my own little set of tools. So I get elbow-deep into it, too.

John: It surprised Gene when he saw her working on vacuum cleaners, because this is a male-dominated field. But when he saw the pride and the craftsmanship that Rachel has—we had her take apart and put back together a Sharp motor, with just a little guidance from us, and when she was finished, she plugged it in, and it worked. He said, ‘You got it!’

Rachel: When we first took over, I had my own job as a graphic designer and was only here part time, and I felt bad, because John was here by himself a lot and would get inundated. So I said, ‘At least let me clean them up.’ And then I was like, ‘Show me how to fix it. Show me how to service a roller.’ So I learned from Gene and John.

Are you anxious about the effect that soaring real estate values and new development might have on your future?
John: I would definitely say that is a concern. Soaring property value is great when you want to cash out as an owner.

Rachel: When you don’t own the property, you’re at the mercy of somebody else. And that’s scary. If the landlord has to raise the rent because of a property revaluation, how do you just magically make up that money as a tenant?

John: One way or another, they’re going to build condos—or the last we heard, a hotel with stores—across the street. It’s great, but it means your taxes go up.

You’re in favor of the RiverCenter expansion to this side of town, even though it’ll mean higher taxes?
John: Absolutely. One-hundred percent.

Rachel: Something’s got to be done over here to bring in some foot traffic and to give the area a sprucing up. And this is the only good idea I’ve heard.

Are you worried that this side of town could become too upscale? Wouldn’t that threaten your business particularly?
John: Valid point. But knowing the owner of this property, that’s a kind of rent control for us.

Rachel: There’s still a need for practical services around here. You know, we don’t have Prown’s anymore, where you can go get a roll of paper towels and a teapot. But everybody needs a vacuum and to have it running. We get people from as far away as Lakewood, Marlboro, Holmdel all day long.

What’s the secret to remembering how to spell ‘vacuum?’
John: They spelled it wrong on my checks at the bank! They spelled it with two Cs. I had 450 checks all spelled wrong.

Which is more important, good food or comfortable shoes?
Rachel: Well, I wear horribly uncomfortable shoes all the time because they’re cute, so I’m the wrong person to ask.

John: I think good shoes to hunt down good food.

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On an unusually blustery day last week, redbankgreen hovered while photographer Michael Marmora worked on his first magazine assignment: shooting the rock band Bedlight for Blue Eyes for the upcoming debut issue of d. magazine, to be published by Red Bank photographer Danny Sanchez.

The shoot took place in the East Front Street breezeway next to Billy’s Barber Shop, and in a parking lot out back. Afterward, we put Marmora through the 10-question ‘Human Bites’ drill.

Marmora, of Holmdel, is 22, and graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology last spring.

This was your first magazine assignment. Were you anxious?
I was. I still am. I’m probably not going to be relieved until I see it in print. I’m always kind of nervous about first-crack attempts at things. But yeah, I mean, I’m excited.

What kind of work have you done with bands in the past?
For the most part, I’ve worked with record labels and bands that need promotional images. Some friends of mine started a record label in Rochester and they needed pictures of their bands, so I went ahead and did that. That’s how I essentially learned to approach the process. I learned that it’s easier to go to the people who manage, or are in charge of the bands, than the bands themselves.

Are you a Bedlight for Blue Eyes fan?
I’ve heard of them. I listen to the music. Yeah, you can say that.

Is it important to know a band’s music before you shoot them?
I think it definitely helps. It’s not necessary, but it’s good to have a ballpark idea of what they sound like so you don’t portray them incorrectly. For instance, I’m not going to photograph a rap group the same way I photograph a metal band, or I’m not going to photograph a folk singer the same way I photograph a grunge band.

Is there an element of absurdity to photographing rock bands? Perhaps a sense that your subjects are both trying to conform to a model of what a band should look like without appearing to do so?
I was just thinking that, actually. For instance, this shoot. They wanted to look like a real band, they wanted to look a certain way, but at the same time, you don’t want them to look like they’re trying too hard, you want them to look natural.

At the beginning of the shoot, they were very casual, and I was just snapping off pictures. As the shoot progressed, it became more, ‘OK, you move here, you move there, move your head this way.’ It was very specific, almost neurotic. But I think that in the overall scheme, while that will look more posed, you don’t want it to appear too posed.

Who are your professional role models?
To be honest, I have more than I could ever count. There’s Mark Seliger, who does a lot of portaiture. There’s Jon Ragel, who also does a lot of portraiture. There’s a photographer in California, Chris McPherson, and Kareem Black. Those four are very influential. I just kind of browse their work occasionally to see how they would approach something.

I always try to push the envelope a little bit with what I do, and for most part, the photographers I mentioned definitely push the envelope. They have the ability to do classic stff, but they definitely go against the grain both in terms of technical issues and pop culture.

What’s the best band photo you’ve ever seen?
Oh, there are so many. I got a book from an ex-girlfriend, and it’s probably the greatest gift I’ve ever received. It’s called ‘Rock Faces.’ The cover has an iconic shot of David Bowie, but the book is just full of great images, from Bob Marley to Morrissey to John Lennon to Patti Smith.

Patti Smith is very heavily photographed artist. She was photographed a lot by Robert Mapplethorpe. I still love his work. He’s one of my favorite all-around photographers.

I can’t say there’s one specific photograph that made me want to photograph musicians. But this book, I open it every day just to be inspired.

Looking five years down the road, what would constitute success for you?
Well, it certainly doesn’t involve money. It’s more or less the fact that I’m recognizable in some circle or niche in the art world. I don’t see myself being a big-name photographer, but if a record label or a magazine is looking for a photograph of a band, I’d like to be one of the first people they think of. I hope to have a few good names under my belt.

How did the Bedlight photos come out?
They turned out very well. One thing I always reiterate to myself afterward is, ‘Shoot more, shoot more.’ And that was sort of my downfall. What I got, I’m happy with. But under the circumstances, with the wind [which continually threatened to knock over Marmora's reflector light lamp], it could have turned out that much better if conditions were available. For example, I would have used another light, which was impossible with the wind. But all in all, you make do with what you have available, and I have at least two shots that are definitely good.

Finally, which is more important, comfortable shoes or good food?
Wow, that is a tough one. I’d have to say comfortable shoes, because I have a kind of quirky diet: I can eat pretty much anything as long as it’s edible. And I do have sort of a shoe obsession.

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Ten quick questions for Gary Sable, owner and sole employee of That Hot Dog Place, 30 Monmouth Street (next to the Dublin House). Gary’s 54, married, lives in Hazlet and has two grown daughters.

Did you have another career before you started this business?
Yeah. Before this, I had bar & restaurant in Perth Amboy called The Triangle Café with my brother, Scott, for 23 years. It was a family business. My father bought it in ’66, and then he started getting sick. I went in in’73, and my brother came in two years later.

The bar business is good when you’re young, but once you get past 35, you don’t want to be in that business anymore. The hours will kill you. Absolutely kill you.

I came down here in April of ’95, and started out doing hot dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches, all that stuff. Then I started to make soups that fall, and they really took off. So I threw out the charcoal grill, threw out the burgers and fries, threw out the grilled chicken. Just concentrated on soups, a limited sandwich menu and the hot dogs. I don’t look back on that one. Not at all.

That simplified your life?
Sure did. I started out seven days a week for the first years, for six years I did six days a week, and now I’m down to five. Doesn’t get any better than that.

How big is this space?
One-hundred-and-seventy square-feet, about the size of a jail cell. Not that I’ve ever been in one. I’ll tell you something, this time of year, the first couple of weeks when it starts getting cold, and that door is closed, I get a little claustrophobic until I get used to it.

You day starts when?
Depending on how much soup I’ve gotta make, 6, 6:30. Sometimes 5:30. Every morning, I chop all my own vegetables, make the soups. Everything is fresh. Sure, you can get pre-cut carrots and onions and potatoes and everything, but they treat them with chemicals. I don’t want that. I might use frozen or canned stuff if I can’t get it fresh year-round, but I like the farm markets. I’ve been using the same Italian sausage for 20 years. It’s the best Italian sausage you can get.

I also make a vegan soup every day. There are a lot of vegetarians in Red Bank.

So is your day a flat-out sprint?
(Raises eyebrows, nods vigorously.) But I like it that way. When you have a day that’s slow, it just drags. You’ve gotta remember, I’m here by myself. What’ll I do all day? Look at the clock? Listen to the radio?

Friday are my slowest days, especially in the summer. Everybody’s off playing golf. So whatever’s left, I put in into containers and we have it at home. My Friday soups are always something my family likes, just in case we get stuck with it.

This is a life you enjoy?
I do enjoy it. It’s like I told my son-in-law, ‘If you don’t like what you do for a living, find another job. You’ll be doing it a long time. You’d better like it.’ I love what I do.

You’ve got a picture of Lou Reed hanging on the wall. Why Lou Reed?
The Velvet Underground—that should say it all right there. You gotta love his staying power.

Do you get insight into human nature from this job that you might not get as a bartender?
Well, the first thing you can see is who’s patient and who’s not, because if there’s a line, you could be waiting 20 minutes out there. You can tell who’s having a good day and who’s not. You can actually just look and see if somebody’s going to give you a hard time because they’re mad about waiting. But most of them are sweethearts.

I assume some people make an association between you and a certain character from ‘Seinfeld.’
Yes, I do get that occasionally. I get a kick out if. But I am not like that guy. I’ve never thrown anybody out. Plus, he’s got a half a dozen people behind him cooking. I’ve got me.

Which is more important, good food or comfortable shoes?
(Pauses 14 seconds) Good food. Good food. If you don’t have comfortable shoes, you can take them off. But anybody who’s eating good food, they just get happy.

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Most Saturdays of the year, 21-year-old Erin Ryan of Belmar stands outside LJ’s Total Man/Today’s Woman clothing store on Broad Street, doing what she calls “promotional modeling,” talking up the merchandise to shoppers.

But when it gets cold enough to turn Erin’s exposed toes purple, she takes her act inside and does a mannequin act in the store’s window.

Erin is a full-time humanities student at Ocean County College, waitresses at an Outback restaurant, cleans houses two days a week, practices photography, and is—big surprise—almost impossible to reach. But redbankgreen caught up with her at LJ’s last weekend for a quick interview.

What’s involved in being a human mannequin?
I normally do 20-minute poses, not breathing, not blinking, not anything. It gets difficult. After about three minutes, your feet go numb and your hands start trembling. And after 15, you don’t even realize that you’re standing still.

What are you thinking when you’re in mannequin mode?
Oh, you think about everything—you think about the weather, you think about what else you could be doing, what TV shows are on that night, who’s going to win Monday Night Football. Anything and everything goes through your mind.

Is it torture knowing that you can’t move?
Yes. It gets absolutely unbearable. You stand up there, and your arms are killing you, and your feet, and you feel like you can’t breathe. It’s very constricting, but it’s definitely fun.

Are there frequent changes of clothing involved?
I normally change two times a day when I’m outside, but working in the window, I change every hour. I try on everything. Even if they don’t want me modeling it, I try on all the new merchandise to see what I like.

How do passersby react when they see you in the window?
It’s really funny, because you have the people who will just stand there and stare, and you’ve got the kids who will try to figure out if I’m real or not and try to get me to move, get me to laugh. And the punk teenagers will try to distract me. It’s really fun. You get up there and see if you can fool people. You’ll have people who will walk by three or four times in a couple of minutes to see if I’ve changed at all, because they feel uncomfortable just standing there and staring.

How long have you been doing this?
I’ve been doing mannequin work since I was 17. I do it at Ocean County College, or at fairs, like the Belmar Fair.

How’d you get this job?
I was actually eating at Mr. Pizza Slice [around the corner from LJ’s, on Monmouth Street], and Mary, from Barbizon, saw me, and she ran me over here, and they told me that wanted to hire me that day.

Are you hoping to have a career in modeling?
I would love a career in modeling, but I don’t have the time to pursue it. I work like 50 hours a week and go to school. But if someone were to discover me, that would be awesome.

You’re also into photography?
Yeah, last year I got into photography and just bought my own equipment, and in January, I’m shooting my first wedding. I’m ridiculously excited.

Obviously, you’re on your feet a lot. Which do you think is more important, good food or comfortable shoes?
Good food, definitely. I could live wearing stiletto heels for the rest of my life, but I could not live without filet mignon and crab legs at least once a week. I’m a big food person. I eat a lot and I love food.

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