What to Expect from Nathan Rabin's Happy Place
This website is nearly three weeks old and it already feels so goddamned right, like a creative rebirth. Many of you are my bosses, in addition to being my readers, since you’ve contributed to my Patreon over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace so I figured I would give you an update as to what the site is going to look and feel like in the weeks and months and years and decade and centuries and millennia to come.
Yes, I’m certain this site will last millennia. You may call that the myopic delusions of a madman. I call it healthy self-confidence. You’ve gotta believe in yourself if you’re going to make it in a dirty racket like pop culture media.
Every week in Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place you will find at least fourteen articles (and no garbage posts!) falling into the following categories:
The Big Whoop Blog: (every weekday, posting at 6 AM EST) I have fallen so far down the professional ladder that it seemed inevitable that I would end up being a blogger, a profession that ranks somewhere behind rodeo clown and highway hooker in terms of the respect it commands from the general public.
I woke up like this: unshaven and pasty
The Big Whoop blog is an opportunity for me to write about whatever the hell is enraging or fascinating me at the moment, whether it’s personal, political or related to pop culture. This website is rooted in the idea that voice matters, and experience matters, and perspective matters and while this site can’t offer you many of the things other things can on account of having no money (I had a shot at a hundred bucks a little while ago, but it slipped through my hands), it will always represent the voice and perspective of one weird old dude. That’s the Nathan Rabin promise, and The Big Whoop blog is the place where my voice is purest and least filtered.
The Weird Accordion To Al (every weekday, posting at 6 AM EST) This is my endless ongoing, song-by-songexploration of the work of American pop parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic, which has just entered the In 3-D period of the American master’s mid-1980s renaissance
Lukewarm Takes (every Wednesday, posting at 6 AM EST): With this column, I’m going back and writing about all the big movies that have come out since I stopped being a film critic about two years ago. The whole point is to catch me up on all I’ve missed and I’ve really enjoyed writing this so far so I’m going to try to do it weekly, until I’ve caught up with all of my 2015, 2016, 217 backlog. Then I can go on to write about movies I’ve never seen, like Indiana Jones And TheKingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Squad goal # 1: Not being as lame as the Suicide Squad
Control Nathan Rabin: (every Thursday, posting at 6 AM EST) This column allows Patreon donors to choose my torment by picking a movie I have to see, then write about. First up was Christian Mingle, followed by the little-loved Happy Madison also-ran The Do-Over. I want the site to be as interactive as possible, and to engage with readers, and this seems like a good vessel to do so.
Them's some good book learning!
Trumpterpiece Theater: (once monthly) a 10 part series on the movie cameos of crazy haired TV clown and current American President Donald J. Trump
This Looks Terrible! (Intermittently on Monday and Tuesday) You know how pretty much everything in the world looks terrible now? Just completely depressing and dispiriting? Like, you wonder how you’re ever going to have the energy or courage to go on? To be honest, it kind of sounds like you’re depressed but you are right that a lot in life looks comically, unbelievably, flamboyantly terrible. In this column I write about phenomena like that.
The Annals of Southern Culture: (Intermittently on Monday and Tuesday) A monthly column on sacred texts of the New South, from Jeff Foxworthy’s early albums to the season of Dukes Of Hazzard with the Duke cousins.
Rando! (Intermittently on Monday and Tuesday) You know, whatevs
Things I Wrote About Because I Got Them for Free: (Intermittently on Monday and Tuesday) The title kind of says it all
Big-Ass Articles (Intermittently on Monday and Tuesday): Meaty articles that don’t fit any other category, like my essay on pioneering anti-feminist Marabel Morgan
The same damn still from Theodore Rex in every article
Those are ten column types I’ve already started writing and publishing in the site’s first 13 days. Here are some proposed features yet to debut:
My World Of Flops (every other week on Tuesday): This is coming to Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place after it ends its run at The A.V Club, beginning with a column on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign, which didn’t turn out too good.
Squeakquels! I just had this idea today. This will be a column that allows me to write about crazy-ass sequels that have no right to exist yet angrily demand to be written about.
Why should this alone claim the title of "Squeakquel" instead of literally every sequel?
Ice-Cold Takes: This would be like Lukewarm Takes except instead of writing about movies that have come out since I stopped being a film critic I’ll be doing a deep dive into all of the big hip hop releases that have come out since I stopped writing about music in about 2008.
Sweetback’s Song: Ambitious monthly column on the interconnected history of hip hop and black independent film
Ask A Juggalo: My advice column
Answer A Juggalo: An advice column where you answer my questions
Here’s what you will not see on Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place: news articles, lists, previews or interviews. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. Hell, they’re the fuel that powers online media but they’re just my strong suit, nor are they where my passion lies.
Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place will never be your one-stop-shop. Instead, I am going to write about what’s important and interesting to me, and hope to god you find it compelling as well.
I’m just one man, after all, which is both a limitation and perhaps the site’s biggest strength. This may all go Pete Tong but right now it very purely reflects my vision and my values, and you cannot put a price on that.
What you might find on this site in the future: movie reviews, maybe?
Let me know what you think and I look forward to collaborating with y’all. This has been great, and it’s only going to be more greaterer in the millennia ahead.