My friend Eli Selden's birthday coincided happily with the opening reception of photographer William Eggleston's grand retrospective exhibition at LACMA, which I drove over from Las Vegas to attend.  (That's Eli above on the left, with her oldest friend from Memphis, where she grew up.)

A bunch of friends and family convened for dinner at the Tar Pit on La Brea before the reception, and we had a fine time.  The food was good and moderately priced, and people from every phase of Eli's life were on hand.

I first met Eli when she was a 16 year-old freshman at Yale (she's brainy) and she and I went on to share many remarkable adventures over the years in the dark jungles of Hollywood.  She's known Bill Eggleston about as long as I have, having babysit his kids in Memphis when she was a teenager, so the occasion of the reception, which Bill attended, was like old home week.

Eli wore a dress with sparkles on it, and sparkled herself all night.  Many happy returns of the day, kid.