The Naming Rights for Nathan Rabin's Happy Place Are Officially Up For Sale for Half Price!
So I posted this about a month ago and got no response. That was disappointing but also not terribly surprising.
So I am officially dropping the price of naming rights for this website to just five hundred dollars a month. Just pledge five hundred dollars to this site’s Patreon account and I will put your name, or the name of your business, in the name of the website. Here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be permanent. You could sponsor the site for one month, when you have something special to promote, then delete your pledge the next month or drop it to something more manageable.
Hell, I would even put a link to whatever you’re promoting at the bottom of every article along with links to my books and Substack. Please do consider it because it would be a nifty and unusual to promote your wares that would help me out tremendously. I have no idea how to monetize this site effectively and would appreciate any and all help. If you can’t afford five hundred dollars a month I would be overjoyed if you would consider pledging as little as a dollar over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace or becoming a paid subscriber to my Substack newsletter Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas at https://nathanrabin.substack.com/ Honestly anything would help.
I never wanted to be a businessman. That was never my dream. That was never my goal. All I ever did was write. All I ever wanted to do was write.
For eighteen years, miraculously, that was enough. When I worked for The A.V Club between 1997 and 2017, with a two year break during which I left to become a staff writer for The Dissolve, there was a whole business side whose job it was to monetize the words my colleagues and myself wrote.
Getting laid off from The Dissolve forced me to be a businessman. It was, to put it mildly, not a natural fit but I believed with all of my heart and soul in Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place.
Writing and editing this website has been a joy. It’s what I feel like I was put on earth to do. Handling the website’s financial aspects, on the other hand, has been a consistent source of anxiety, stress, depression and terror.
I'm way too neurotic for a line of work where your income deviates from month to month, sometimes going up but more often going way down.
I feel like I’ve spent the last six years unsuccessfully begging for enough crumbs to keep going. So I have decided to stand up straight and politely but firmly ask the universe for a meal.
I am officially putting the naming rights to Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place up for sale for one thousand dollars a month. I will also throw in a monthly column of your choice.
Do you run Chico's Bail Bonds and love Columbo? Then I would be happy to rechristen this site Chico’s Bail Bonds Presents: Nathan Rabin's Happy Place and watch all the Columbo movies in order, one a month.
It's like sponsoring a little league team only instead of buying uniforms for children you'll be giving a veteran pop culture writer of note enough money to keep going.
There is a precedent for this in that my podcast Travolta/Cage, which I cohost with Clint Worthington, is officially sponsored by Effin Birds so it is Effin Birds Presents: Travolta/Cage. That’s where most of its Patreon haul comes from.
You might think that one thousand dollars is a large sum of money. You would be right. That’s why I’m asking for it. I’d have a whole lot less to worry about everyday if I could count on that money every month.
One thousand dollars is not a large sum of money for a lot of people, however. There are lots and lots of people in the world with lots and lots of money that they spend on stupid things.
If you are Mr. Beast, for example, your whole deal is giving people money. I am a person and I very much need money. I would be happy to rechristen this site Mr. Beast Presents: Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place. Heck, I would even accept the money of his NSFW competitor Mr. Breast, who comes about his livelihood honestly, as he is reportedly Russ Meyer’s illegitimate son.
Why should you consider having your name combined with mind? Here are a few reasons.
*I was the first, and, to date, only head writer for The A.V. Club. As the site’s third employee I played a huge role in establishing its voice
*In 2004 and 2005 I was a panelist on Movie Club with John Ridley, an AMC panel show hosted by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave and featuring MacArthur Genius Grant winner Josh Kun.
me and some guys. I think one of them is the dude from Islands?
*In 2007 I coined the phrase “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” in the first entry in my column My Year of Flops.
*The phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl became part of the cultural parlance. It was added to the Oxford dictionary.
*I was an answer on Jeopardy
*In 2009 Scribner published The Big Rewind, a memoir that got glowing reviews, including a big write-up in The New York Times.
* “Weird Al” Yankovic was so impressed by The Big Rewind that he hired me to write his 2012 coffee table book Weird Al: The Book, which is credited to Rabin and Yankovic. That’s pretty distinguished company!
*In 2013 I published You Don’t Know Me But You Don't Like Me through Scribner. The book legitimately changed the way Juggalos are seen for the better. I’m pretty damn proud that I helped make American pop culture a less judgmental and more accepting place.
*You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me got a four star review in Rolling Stone and was named one of its top twenty music books of 2013.
*I was a staff writer for Pitchfork’s beloved film site The Dissolve for NEARLY all of its existence.
*In 2017 I spoke at the legendary Juggalo March on Washington
* In 2020 I published The Weird Accordion to Al, a 500 page book about “Weird Al” Yankovic that he copy-edited, fact-checked and wrote the introduction for. I followed it up with a robust-selling coloring book I created with my brilliant illustrator Felipe Sobreiro.
*I’m currently in my sixth year of running Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place, a cult website with some of the nicest and smartest commenters on the whole damn web.
*I’m currently into my SIXTEENTH YEAR of writing My World of Flops.
*I’ve watched and chatted about damn nearly every John Travolta and Nicolas Cage movie with my cohost Clint Worthington for our Travolta/Cage podcast.
*I’m nearly finished with my ninth book, a 650 page magnum opus about the history of American films about the film industry called The Fractured Mirror, that you can preorder here.
Granted, that has not been enough to get me an interview for any of the places I’ve applied to, let alone a job, but if you put it all together it looks pretty damned impressive, like the kind of thing you might want to be involved with.
I’d like to think that my twenty-six years as a pop culture writer, eight books, countless columns and website are worth something monetarily as well as creatively and emotionally.
Sponsoring Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place would be a concrete way of striking a blow for independent media and veteran writers and against AI and clickbait and all of the other bullshit that makes pop culture media such a nightmare.
Buying naming rights would make you a hero to me and the people who love this site. Everybody in the world would know about your kindness and generosity. Also, that you can totally afford to part with a grand each month. That oughta impress the ladies, fellas or non-binary folks!
I would love for your name, or the name of your business, to join mine so if you interested please email me at nathanrabin@sbcglobal.net and let’s 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