This afternoon I saw Little Miss Sunshine with my friend Tracy, and after had beers at the Blind Pig with Tracy and my new friend, her husband, Stuart.

[I was trying to place Pageant Assistant Pam, Mary Lynn Rajskub, but couldn't. She was the neurotic sister, Elizabeth, in Punch Drunk Love. Of course!]

Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderful look at a completely dysfunctional family that finally comes together in the end due to a forced road trip to get Olive, the 7-year old daughter, into a beauty contest.

In the process, it manages to comment on so much of modern life, be it teen angst, beauty, marriage, being gay, being old, death, drug use, or positive thinking. The real commentary, though, is saved for the absurdity and pervesity that is child beauty contests.

Go see it if you have a chance. It’ll make you laugh, repeatedly, and maybe even cry, but it ends very upbeat.

Super freak, super freak
That girl’s a super freak
Ohhhhh

She’s a very kinky girl
The kind you don’t take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street, ow girl

Rick James, Superfreak

I would have sent you to www.rickjames.com but it requires plugins.