The Decade That Was or Holy Shit, I Did Good! — It Turns Out the Naming Rights! Membership Option Was For Real and Someone Is Now Five Hundred Bucks Poorer Presents Nat

I’m not sure why it took me so long, but for some reason I never got around to writing one of those “The decade that was” Facebook posts until January, thereby rendering such self-reflection/celebration irrelevant and unwanted.

It’s possible I was worried such an endeavor might remind me of all that I have lost over the past ten years, which has been a good deal. After all, I entered the decade the head writer of a red-hot A.V Club who recently published a memoir with prestigious Simon & Schuster subsidiary Scribner and had another Scribner book on the way in My Year of Flops. I ended it getting ready to self-publish a second book about “Weird Al” Yankovic as part of a career overwhelmingly dependent on the generosity of patrons and readers rather than the fickle, mercurial moods of an industry that seems to be getting progressively more impossible by the day.

So I am going to take a trip down memory lane and do an extended victory lap partially to remind myself that, despite what my bank account and credit card debt might suggest, I’m actually doing really well both in terms of doing what I love for a living and having amazing opportunities I thank God for every day, like this website and The Weird Accordion to Al book, which has already attracted so much amazing support.

So, here goes: In the past decade I got married, had two sons who have filled my life with joy and purpose and meaning, co-wrote the coffee table book of my childhood hero "Weird Al" Yankovic, became a Juggalo and Phish phan, spoke at the Juggalo March on Washington, was an answer on Jeopardy and background gag on Bojack Horseman.

I've attended something in the area of forty something Phish shows, seven Gathering of the Juggalos and 15 or so "Weird Al" Yankovic shows, including 7 stops on the 2018 Self-Indulgent Vanity Tour.

Oh, and a phrase I came up, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, became an actual universally recognized archetype and shit, to an extent that both makes me very proud and kind of embarrasses me.

I was a guest on Analyze Phish with Harris Wittels and Scott Aukerman, was interviewed by Marc Maron for the 300th episode of WTF, left the A.V Club after sixteen years at a point when it was blowing the fuck up for my dream job at the Dissolve, got laid off said dream job, left the world of salaried employment forever to become a full-time freelancer in 2015 have not looked back.

I started my own website in Nathan Rabin's Happy Place in 2017, where my My World of Flops column is currently in its THIRTEENTH YEAR of flopitude and became a podcaster devoted to watching and talking about every movie John Travolta and Nicolas Cage ever made for my Travolta/Cage podcast with Clint Worthington, moved from Chicago to Atlanta, where I've lived for five years and re-invented myself as a proud independent after that whole being a company man thing didn't quite work out.

Oh, and I went on a cruise with Kid Rock. That was fun. And weird.

I wrote the liner notes for a Criterion release of an Elaine May movie, the brilliant and sublime Mikey & Nicky, spent a weekend at the home of Robert Evans as his special guest and got four stars and best music book of the year accolades in Rolling Stone for YOU DON'T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON'T LIKE ME, the book about Phish fans and Juggalos named after a Buck Owens song I went half-crazy writing.

I created, in Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place a website I am proud to visit everyday that has also created a wonderful community of readers and commenters and fans.

And I went back into therapy after five years and finished two books I'd been working on for five and three years respectively, one on the movie and book Postal with Brock Wilbur and the other a book on the life's work of "Weird Al" Yankovic called The Weird Accordion to Al that I legitimately think might be the best thing I've ever done, and has already been blurbed by murderer's row of brilliant comic minds with particular insight into Al's unique genius, including Patton Oswalt, Scott Aukerman, Jonah Ray, Alex Winter and most recently the great Tom Lennon and Jake Fogelnest.

It's been a joyous struggle. If you'd told me a decade ago that I would make my living working for myself and my readers as the sole writer on my own website, I would not have believed you but I've had to adjust to a world that never stops throwing curveballs.

Thanks everyone who has supported me, with their words and money and kindness and empathy. I take as much, if not more pride, in being able to provide for my family with the fruits of my labor as a small businessman and website proprietor as I did writing multiple books simultaneously and working in staff positions for huge websites like Pitchfork and The Dissolve.

I used to be a professional film critic. Now I do my own thing. It is wonderful and more than a little terrifying.

I am both exhausted and overflowing with excitement and anticipation for what's ahead. It's been a beautiful ride and, like the musical AND film career of Frank Stallone, it is far from over.

Also, if you want to throw a few dollars into my crowd-funding accounts I sure wouldn't mind a bit. There's always a big plunge on the first of every month once all the deletions and rejected charges go through and I sure wouldn't mind offsetting that at least a little bit. Think of it as a Bar Mitzvah gift to My World of Flops, which has officially become a man in its thirteenth year even as its writer remains an eternal man-child AT https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace