Silver Lake Green Drinks moves to Hollywood

If you socialize regularly at Green Drinks with local environmentalists, note the new location for the event tonight. What used to be East Side Green Drinks, meeting at Good Luck Bar in Silver Lake every third Thursday of the month, has now mysteriously become the West Hollywood / Silver Lake Green Drinks, despite the fact that the two neighborhoods are nowhere near each other.

I think the new multi-city alliance of sorts was created simply because the organizers decided to hold tonight's Green Drinks at Cisco Home, which is far, far west of Silver Lake. However, Cisco Home -- located at 440 N. La Brea -- isn't in West Hollywood either. It's more accurately in Hollywood, though the building is actually about a block south of the area officially considered to be Hollywood.

Quibbles about the location aside, L.A. Green Drinks has really changed quite a bit since its inception a few years ago -- so much that I've, um, stopped going. That doesn't mean that the event's made a turn for the worse; Green Drinks is simply different. What used to be a relatively unstructured monthly social event at a local bar, where everyone entered for free and bought their own drinks, has now turned into sponsored events at furniture stores requiring a cover and featuring environmental speakers.

Some may love the opportunity to hear local environmentalists speak. But because of what I do, I hear environmental speakers all the time -- and am a little sad that what used to be a relaxed night of socializing's turned into yet another speaker series, with drinks on the side. Most of my friends are also very involved in the enviro-world; all of us probably complain about the change in Green Drinks' structure and venues way too much.

Still, tonight's speaker sounds interesting: It's Tom O'Leary, the Communications and Development Specialist, from Forest Ethics. Here are the details for those who want to hear O'Leary:

When: Tonight, Thurs., May 15, 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Where: Cisco Home, 440 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles
Cost: $5 donation

I'll be elsewhere. In the meantime, some friends and I are thinking of starting a structure-free Green Drinks Santa Monica. Want to be kept in the loop? E-mail me.