I've Got a Substack Now! Introducing Nathan Rabin's Bad Ideas!
It brings me great pleasure to announce that I am officially launching a Substack newsletter named Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas.
I’ve had a lot of great ideas over the course of my twenty-five years as a pop culture writer. Manic Pixie Dream Girl? That was an idea so brilliant that it entered the cultural lexicon, seemingly for good.
Starting this website? At the risk of being immodest, that was a GREAT idea. I fucking love this website. It’s been a wonderful professional home for me for five and a half years.
The Travolta/Cage Project and Travolta/Cage podcast? I’m EXTREMELY proud of both of those ideas. Writing about EVERY SINGLE “Weird Al” Yankovic album in chronological order and then turning that column into a 500 page book? That did not seem like a good, or commercial idea when I was actually writing the column but it turned out to be one of the best and most lucrative ideas of my career.
Turning the 500 page extended version of The Weird Accordion to Al into the world’s first, best and only “Weird Al” Yankovic coloring book? That was one hell of a good idea. I am super happy with how that turned out, although all the credit there belongs to my brilliant illustrator Felipe Sobreiro.
Introducing Control Nathan Rabin 4.0, a column where readers/patrons can pay me to watch and write about a movie of their choice? That was a great idea that has played a huge role in keeping this website in business.
Writing a book about movies about movies? That was a great idea and I’m loving the epic journey The Fractured Mirror has sent me on.
I have had a lot of great ideas but the sad fact of the matter is that twenty-five years into my career as a pop culture writer of some renown, and five and a half years into the existence of this wonderful website I am struggling mightily just to get by.
My many good ideas have all either failed or succeeded just enough to keep me just barely in business so I figure it’s time to give my bad ideas a try with my new newsletter.
I’ve been meaning to start a newsletter for years now so this is an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I can introduce a newsletter and hopefully gain a much needed new audience and revenue stream in the process.
I see Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas as a continuation and extension of the Happy Place. It’s an opportunity to use the very specific skill set that I have developed over the course of my careeer to build something new and wonderful but also rooted irrevocably in everything that has come before.
What will you get for your five dollar monthly Substack subscription? I’m glad you asked.
I’ll be writing about all of the Ernest P. Worrell movies in chronological order, including re-watching and re-reviewing the ones I’ve already covered. Why? Why the hell not? I am a lover of fine art, after all, and an intellectual.
I will also be writing about the complete filmographies of either James Belushi or Gary Busey. Why? Again, there’s no good reason for it. It’s not like Travolta/Cage, where they’re two fascinating film legends whose careers overlap in some really fascinating places. No, they’re just two weird, oddly fascinating trash culture icons whose names happen to rhyme. Also, I’ve kind of been obsessed with James Belushi since seeing him perform at Old Joliet Prison as part of the “Blues Brothers” for the Blues Brothers Con.
I’ll let YOU determine whether I waste my time with Belushi’s or Busey’s oeuvre. I’ll be conducting a poll for subscribers that will end on February 1st, at which point my journey with either Busey or Belushi will begin.
I’m also going to start going to the movie theaters on Friday to watch and review new movies, something I did at the beginning of my career back in Madison as a freelance critic for The A.V Club in the late 1990s.
Only this time I’ll be doing it for y’all and letting you choose what I review. I’ll begin this Friday by watching and writing about either the Gerard Butler plane crash action thriller January special Plane, the House Party reboot OR M3gan.
M3gan is a bit of a cheat, since it came out last Friday but I’m looking for any excuse to watch and write about it.
Studios generally dump their worst movies on apathetic audiences in mostly empty theaters in January and February. What better time for me to get back into writing up new films?
Also, Cocaine Bear! I repeat, Cocaine Bear!
I was a professional film critic for eighteen years. I was pretty good at it, I reckon. I miss it and welcome an opportunity to do it again in my own idiosyncratic fashion.
You’ll also be getting exclusive access to an upcoming piece on my experiences at a Shrek-themed rave in Atlanta this Friday: I am a forty-six year old husband and father. I have no business going to a big Shrek themed rave (my very first) but I’m going to do it anyway and write about the experience because that is a VERY bad/good idea.
Here’s the fun part: I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want with this Substack, but I can also pretty much do whatever the hell you want as well.
Want me to write about all 13 Gallagher specials? Fuck it, if enough people get excited about a sick idea like that I’ll definitely consider it.
Dying for me to write about Larry the Cable Guy’s life’s work? That’s, disturbingly, exactly the kind of thing I’m thinking of doing for Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas.
Rally the troops, get a bunch of folks excited about a specific bad idea, and I’ll definitely give your awful idea consideration. That’s what this crazy new venture is all about.
Let’s do this! Check out https://nathanrabin.substack.com/ and we will make the magic happen!
Buy the 516 page Sincere Movie Cash-In Edition of The Weird Accordion to Al AND get a free coloring book for just 20 dollars, shipping and taxes included, at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop and get a free copy of The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Cynical Movie Cash-in Edition free!
Pre-order The Fractured Mirror, the Happy Place’s next book, a 600 page magnum opus about American films about American films illustrated by the great Felipe Sobreiro over at https://the-fractured-mirror.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out! And it’s only 12.00, shipping, handling and taxes included, 23 bucks for two books, domestic only at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al here and The Weird Accordion to Al here
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace