Light rail bar crawl

On Saturday, I hopped on the Box Car Crawl, a bar crawl along the light rail line.
The crawl started at Brixx and then went to McKoy’s on Old Pineville Road. From there, it was off to Tyber Creek, Tutto Mondo, Gin Mill and Morehead Street Tavern.


Center City Magazine, an upcoming Observer publication, co-sponsored the crawl. For the record, I went because Larken told me about it -- not because it was affiliated with the Big O. He works for Sparrow, a liquor distributor, and each stop featured specials on some of their liquors.

The next crawl is scheduled for Dec. 15. For details go to www.lightrailbarcrawl.com. Saturday’s event was a test. It started slowly, with about 10-15 of us meeting at Brixx. (Apparently, many more people joined up later.) We rode the train to McKoy’s and hung out there for wings and cocktails. Larken and I headed back early to go to Hom nightclub, and to see Grandmaster Flash spin at Tempo. On the train trip from McKoy’s, about a dozen people leaving a wedding jumped on the train.

Only in Charlotte can you be silly drunk, bump into folks on mass transit, and not worry about getting your booty kicked. Gotta love this city.

Local longtime deejay returns

I was navigating the crowded dance floor at Woods on South on Friday when I saw a face I never expected to see: Wearing a headset and working the turntables at the Toys for Tots party was Scott Beaty!

Beaty, who deejayed at uptown's Cosmos Cafe, for Panther and Hornets’ games and at other clubs, was seriously injured in an accident after a Panthers’ game on Christmas Eve two years ago. His road to recovery looked extremely difficult because deejays don’t make a lot of money and often don’t have health insurance. His left hip was broken and badly seperated.

I hadn’t heard from him in at least a year, so my mouth spread into a big grin when I saw him deejaying at the annual holiday party. He looked good, but he said he’s only slowly getting back into things. He still can’t feel part of his left shin and the top of his left foot. He still deejays private parties.

Beaty spun a mix of mostly old-school hip-hop and R&B for the hundreds of holiday revelers. Dancers partied in front of the stage where Beaty spun; everyone else filled in pockets of space throughout the restaurant, either sitting in booths or squeezing in a place to stand.