The Rhino and Compass guide to your Fantasy Football Draft

Training camps are opening across the country. Absurdly, the preseason starts on Thursday. I’m sure you knew all of this already, because if you interact with anyone in the United States, you’ve already been asked if you are playing fantasy football this year. I’m not any expert on fantasy football, but I do have some ideals when it comes to drafting players, and in the paragraphs below, please find the Rhino and Compass fantasy football draft philosophy.

Quarterbacks:
It used to be that I would suggest a running quarterback would be the top bet, because rushing yards always counted more than throwing. Mike Vick, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson all fit this category, and it seemed like more were cropping up. Now, Newton is practically the only real mobile threat under center in the game.

Now I would say just get a healthy veteran. UIt’s the most stable way to go, and it’s one of the rare positions where players actually get significantly better as they get older. Don’t waste time getting a QB early, but getting QBs in back to back rounds in like the 6^th or 7^th isn’t a terrible idea.

Running BacksHave you ever heard anyone say that they won their fantasy league despite not having a great running back? No? Because that doesn’t happen. The core of any championship team is a good ground game.

With that in mind, you almost certainly should draft a running back in the first round, unless there is something extremely compelling available, or the best running backs are already gone. The best running backs, I should say, excepting a few vital rules.

Rule #1 – The shelf life of a running back is short. Don’t draft a running back in the first round that is older than about 28, because they are pretty much at the back end of their career by that point.  The second is don’t draft a running back that’s already had a major knee injury.

After you draft your star back in the first round, consider another in the 2^nd round, so long as they follow the first two rules, and really consider it if they are good receivers. Other than that? Wait until later in the draft and load up on rookies and second year players. That’s where the value is, and those are the guys that will break out and win your league for you.

Wide ReceiversThe modern game is vertical, and as you might imagine, wide receivers are becoming increasingly important. Make sure that you hit the early and middle rounds hard. Veterans aren’t a bad idea here. Round 2, unless there is a great RB option, should be dedicated to WRs. Maybe even 3 and 4, possibly 5.
The type of receiver should depend on what league you are in. Is it PPR? Then possession receivers, especially a QB favorite, are your best options. Not PPR? Then go for the home run hitters that will be streaking downfield on every possession. Well, do that with the first pick, then grab the other variety a little later on.

This is an area where I would lean towards veteran receivers, but maybe get young depth late in the draft. You aren’t going to find break outs among the veterans that have been playing for years, and you aren’t going to win by being conservative. Draft some young guys late.

Tight EndsThis is very important: there are two good tight ends, and then everyone else. Don’t be afraid to draft Gronk or Travis Kelce in the first round, because the drop between TE 1 and 2 and the rest of the league is much greater than at any other position. Drafting one of those two guys early gives you the most positional value, really of any player in the draft.

When you are looking in the 10^th or 11^th round, you can see if the Jimmy Graham’s of the world are available, but you will get much better bang for your buck by looking for tight ends of bad quarterbacks. Tight ends are their security blankets, and can rack up catches and yards as a result.

Defense
Did you know that if you play the defense that plays the worst offense every week, rather than the best defense, you will end up with the most points? Don't waste a high pick on a defense. Wait until the very end, and then take the Saints who are playing the Bucs in week 1.

Kicker
Just take whoever Yahoo has as the first available kicker. Or find one with a bye week as late in the year as you can find so you only have to change him once during the season.

All right, that's all you need, I think. At the very least, if you don't win your league, you can blame me. 

The longest winter

After 35 years, mostly spent in Minnesota, this is the winter that finally broke me.

It didn’t seem like that was how it would be at the beginning. November and December were significantly warmer than normal, and precipitation lagged behind what the Twin Cities have come to expect from a winter. It was a docile start. It wouldn’t last.

Thanksgiving rolled around, and it seemed already like the winter was going to be interminable, despite the favorable weather to that point. My wife and I were about to announce to friends and loved ones that we were expecting, and keeping a lid on things was excruciating. After everyone knew, we realized that we still had to wait through the winter to finally meet our new twin boys.

But the weather still lulled us into believing we would have an easy winter. For Christmas, we went down to visit in laws near Iowa City. My mother in law lamented that there hadn’t been snow yet, and remarked upon how badly she wanted a white Christmas. Fortunately, on the night before Christmas Eve, it snowed, giving us a picturesque holiday.

That was the last time I was happy to see snow.

Before it started to get exceptionally snowy, it started to get exceptionally chilly. Minnesota usually doesn’t see as much snow as some have been led to believe, particularly at the heart of winter. There are often some bouts with Alberta Clippers , but the Twin Cities don’t often contend with the monolithic snow totals they do in the mountains, or even on the East Coast. A cold, snowless winter wasn’t as unusual as it may have seemed at first.

Even if it was the type of winter most Minnesotan’s had grown accustomed to, it was still extremely unpleasant, especially after such a warm segue to the chill that started at the beginning of January. It was an epically cold start to 2018, with full days, consecutive 24 hour periods which were below 0. That’s uncomfortable for even the hardiest Minnesotans.

And then it moderated. It seemed like we were in good shape, especially after a winter of near misses, with snow storms tracking north or south or east of us. It was warmer and all seemed OK. That sensation wouldn’t last long, however. We were ok for about a week before we caught our first round of nastiness in 2018 right in the teeth. The Twin Cities were buried under 5-8” of snow, depending on your local yardstick, at about the same time Twins Fest was starting at Target Field, disrupting the team’s annual reminder that summer was only a few months away.

A week later, it got really bad. The first backbreaking snow of the year fell on a Monday, and nobody was ready for it. Offices and schools tried to close ahead of time in order to brace for the impact, but as much as a snow storm can be a crisis, this was a crisis. School children weren’t able to make it home until midnight, thanks to terrible road conditions and crews that couldn’t keep up with the mess. That’s not even to mention the cities that pulled plows off the road because of the treacherous conditions, waiting to plow the next day.

I feel it’s important to note that all of these cataclysmic happenstances occurred in the Cities. Those busses that couldn’t get home were in St. Paul, not the prairies of western Minnesota. I don’t remember a storm ever being that much of an unmanageable catastrophe, outside of perhaps reading a Laura Ingalls Wilder book in 2^nd grade, but here we were, January 2018, completely lost.

Fortunately, some of the snow melted and roads were cleared in time for the Super Bowl week. It was even balmy the weekend before the Big Game, leading to Idina Menzel being ridiculed for being uncomfortable in temperatures that were only in the 40s. It would get colder after she left.

Most of the work week following that opening weekend saw temperatures plummet to below zero overnight. For a lot of the fans that came into town, even those from Philadelphia and Boston, it was the coldest they’d ever felt, to say the least of the assembled media from New York, or even worse, Los Angeles. Not only was this a particularly nasty bout of cold air, it came at exactly the same time that the world was looking at the Twin Cities.

If anyone thought that this was a good marketing maneuver for the Twin Cities, they were mistaken. Minneapolis is full of great people with great attitudes, but people don’t like cold, and Minneapolis had that in spades. Darren Rovell of ESPN even said, before the game, that this would be the last time the Twin Cities would ever host the Super Bowl. Nice work, winter.

Eventually, the nasty cold weather abated. There were a few cool spells, and some rounds of light snow. We were able to head to the Brainerd Lakes for a vacation in mid-March without contending with massive snowfalls. Winter, it seemed, was on the way out.

Alas, we hadn’t made it to April. April ultimately turned out to be the snowiest winter on record in the state of Minnesota. We had a bruising snow on April 4^th, which seemed to be the worst it could possibly be. Most of the Twin Cities collected half a foot, though some places received considerably more. It wasn’t universally terrible, though, because warm temperatures allowed for clear roads sooner rather than later.

April 4^th is a late date for snow of any nature in the Twin Cities, let alone half a foot. It was aberrant and unwelcomed, and it wasn’t the last blow of the season.

10 days later, the Twin Cities suffered one of the heaviest snow storms in their history. A foot and a half of heavy, wet snow smothered the city. It was impossible to shovel, and was too dense for most snowblowers. There was the promise of warmth around the corner (though it was loath to come too quickly) but for much of the Twin Cities, we were snowed in. In April. (the snowiest on record, as it would turn out)

I remember specifically my snowblower refusing to scoop that snow and toss it. The late winter snow had overcome modern technology, like antibiotic resistant bacteria. This winter had broken down our final resistance, and left us dealing with its aftermath with shovels and ice chippers, as though we had been knocked back a generation or two.

The winter of 2017-18 had officially taken down Minnesota’s defenses. I was at a point where I was emotionally incapable of dealing with another round of snow or cold, and the state had proven, more than once, to be physically incapable of handling it.

Any time that there is a heavy winter like the last, cabin fever starts to settle in. There is Netflix to binge upon nowadays, but that can only take you so far. Too much time was spent on the internet by most people. Adding to the stress and interminable nature if the winter was our eager anticipation of two baby boys that were to arrive in the spring.

Also this winter, Toys R Us went belly up, taking Babies R Us with it, sending my wife and I into a bit of a tailspin. Where do you even get baby supplies without Babies R Us around? This was just another crisis, and we had nothing but time to think about it.

We were bringing two children into the world, and it seemed like that whole god-danged world was ending.

And so that’s where I was by mid-April. A babbling mess, not in control of my emotions, nor my body as spastic muscle contractions gripped me in the wake of shoveling 2 tons of snow. We didn’t even clear the full drive way, just enough that we could blast our way out, so long as there was no traffic in the way. I gave up. I was a broken shell of a man.

Then, the spring finally came. There was hope. It’s been warmer and the sun is out. It took longer than it ever has, but because of that, this spring feels even better than it ever has. Maybe soon, I will forget about this tortuous winter that buckled my spirit.

Until the fall comes. Then I’m sure PTSD will come.

Nostalgia for good

We're at a stage where most nostalgic looks back at pop culture of yore are taking us to the 80s or early 90s, and if anyone wants to crack wise about the 80s, a go to punchline is Cyndi Lauper. Nobody exemplified the 80s quite like her.

She had the colorful hair, pop hits and the brilliant lack of staying power of pop stars identified closely with a particular decade. Still, somehow, we are seeing more and more of Lauper, either in commercials, at events or sometimes in the news.

But it wasn’t just electronic music and multicolored hair that followed pop culture out of the 80s. It was also the decade that homosexuality was more greatly acknowledged, and in many pockets of America, it was when homosexuals started to be accepted.

Part of the acknowledgement came from the recognition of the problems within the community, not the least of which were the understanding of HIV and AIDS and how they were impacting those that identified as gay, in particular. Of course, the fact that this lifestyle was associated with an epidemic only added to the stigma that has been there since the dawn of Christianity.

As with most cases of prejudice, a personal closeness with someone who is of a minority, or marginalized population can help assuage those feelings of suspicion. For Lauper, she was particularly close with the community, having a sister that identified as gay.

Coincidentally, the LBGT movement adopted the rainbow flag as a symbol for their struggle for acceptance and equal rights under the law, at about the time that Lauper released her hit single “True Colors,” a romantic song about opening up on a personal level.

While the song was not released as a gay rights anthem, the singer was, and the themes coincided nicely with what activists were striving for. Acceptance of what one truly was, and being accepted by those who loved you, even if that was a scary proposition at first. Lauper expressed something in this song beyond its original intent, and she wasn’t really trying when she did so.

10 years ago, Lauper and associates went beyond the message of the song, beyond simple acceptance, and moved tangibly to support the LGBT community, setting up the True Colors Fund. Rather than being an organization focused on rights advocacy, the Fund has dedicated itself to support for homeless LGBT youth, who disproportionately find themselves on the streets. 

This is the type of charitable endeavor that isn’t simply a vanity project for the celebrity, as many organizations run by celebrities (or even future even future presidents) can tend to be. It is a targeted program that brings awareness to a particular societal problem, rather than vaguely being for “the kids” or “the poor”. Because of its targeted concern, Lauper’s celebrity adds much needed publicity, and her passion adds more motivation.

The True Colors fund has an active roster of events and drives that seem to be well funded, and a board of directors that blends top business minds with other celebrities. The fact that this organization banked on a song that was 20 years old at the time and has seen sustained viability for 10 years says something about Lauper and the cause she is fighting for.
It's perfectly legitimate to think back to Cyndi Lauper's heyday, and think of the pink haired goofball that seems to pop up here and there even now. She was that, but we should be so lucky that a modern, seemingly flighty celebrity is so able to leverage their fame into the greater good.

Katie Nolan's jump from a sinking ship

When taken in the prism of cable sports networks, Fox Sports 1 has been a success, exceeding the scope and quality of NBCSN and CBS Sports. Unfortunately, when it was founded, FS1 was viewed as a challenger to ESPN and in that regard, it has been a failure.

The biggest problem with FS1 has been a willingness to copy ESPN, and a reluctance to stick with anything innovative. In a network that attempted to develop personalities at first seemed unwilling to give those personalities the chance to truly flourish, or at least, for the American Public to get to know them.

Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole, extremely popular in Canada were to be the centerpieces of FS1's offering. They had developed a cult following in Canada, and were building their base in the US, however the network moved away from their quirky highlight show in the most apparent change in network strategy. The change was underscored by Fox importing high priced talent from ESPN.

Skip Bayless and Colin Cowherd came to Fox to host talk shows that mirrored their offering on ESPN, and were antithetical to what Fox promised at the outset, and to what had been offered up until that point. They wanted to make sports fun again, and didn't want to populate the airwaves with haughty blowhards.

The perfect analog for the network's trajectory is found in Katie Nolan's time with the company. She is one of the very few FS1 personalities that stuck it out from the launch of the network until now. Or at least, until a few weeks ago.

While several ESPN personalities, not the least of which were Cowherd and Bayless, made the jump to Fox, the talent flow has not been a two way street. It's hard to come up with a figure more prominent than Nolan that has made the switch over to the Worldwide Leader, where she now hosts podcasts and SportsCenter on Snapchat.

Nolan popped up first on Crowd Goes Wild, one of the original shows from FS1's launch featuring, anachronistically, Regis Philbin in the hosting role. After withstanding some internet insults from ESPN's Rick Reilly, Nolan rose to Regis' defense on Crowd Goes Wild, and star was born.

After Crowd Goes Wild went belly up, she was the only talent from the show to bounce back with a different role on the network. She collected her own show, Garbage Time, which was a vehicle for Nolan to do mostly what she pleased. It captured the essence of the network, which still sought to have fun and brought a genuine sense of giddy irreverence to sports, but was still trying to figure out the best way to do that.

FS1 wasn't the ratings rocket that Fox had hoped for. Their live events did well, but the programming built around it wasn't as successful. They went out and hired Jamie Horowitz away from ESPN, and he turned the network on it's head, abandoning the sports as fun concept, and "embracing debate," the mantra that ESPN had moved to under Horowitz's direction in the 2000's. This is when Cowherd and Bayless moved over and were given shows like they'd had on ESPN.

Perhaps because of the now bloated schedule and in deference to the bloated salaries of the new additions, FS1 found it difficult to find a spot for Nolan and the whimsical Garbage Time, and she was off the air for 11 months. Itching to leave, she put out feelers and ESPN gladly welcomed her aboard. It was a courtship long in the making, according to Nolan herself, as relayed on the Sports Media Podcast with Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch, and consummated only after FS1 ran out of things for her to do.

The arc or Nolan's career with FS1 is now complete. Her participation in Crowd Goes Wild, a rather off the wall show from FS1's launch introduced her to the masses. As the initial programming fell by the way side, she was one of the few survivors as FS1 started experimenting with new content. Then, she disappeared as FS1's transition into ESPN Lite was completed. 

Ironically, it seems as though ESPN learned the lesson as FS1 lost it's way. ESPN has embraced the arrival of Nolan, and placed her in several high profile roles that emphasize her ability to improvise and work off the cuff. FS1 has not only become a clone of ESPN, it's become a clone of the very version of ESPN it had originally sought to eradicate. 

Is this the face of Minnesota now?

In case you hadn’t heard, Minneapolis will be hosting the Super Bowl next month. There is a chance that the Vikings could even be in it, which is exciting for local fans, and a first of it' kind event in the NFL, but regardless of who appears in the game, it will be a touchstone event for the city, with

ramifications for a generation.

With an eye on the city, you can bet that the national TV cameras will be looking for an ambassador, especially one who holds the Vikings near and dear to their heart. With that in mind, undoubtedly, cameras will turn to the most famous, most ardent Vikings fan around.

Nick Swardson

As a qualifier, I should say that Swardson is undoubtedly the most ardent, famous Viking fan out there. Certainly, there are other Vikings fans, though not as vociferous, in the celebrity community. Nobody tops Swardson for his forthright allegiance. This isn't a great look for the state of Minnesota.

The problem in general is a lack of interest in Minnesota sports from Minnesota celebrities. If you look around the internet for most famous fans of particular teams, you will find one CBS.com article that calls Craig Kilborn the most famous fan of the Timberwolves, Swardson of the Vikings and Bleacher Report suggests  Josh Hartnett for the Twins with Kris Humphries, a basketball player, second.

Prince passed away last year, but was a much more renowned figure in Minnesota and in Vikings fandom, but other Minnesotan celebrities seem to have a casual disregard for Minnesota sports. Andrew Zimmern owns some concessionaries at the various stadiums around town, but good luck getting him to a game or chatting about the teams when he isn't there. I'm not sure Bob Dylan follows sports.

There are, of course, other celebrities in the Twin Cities that have a national presence, like Josh Hartnett or Kevin Sorbo (I guess), but they are just as distanced from Minnesota athletics as the previous examples, and surely not as active on social media, for better or worse.

So Swardson is the main event. Oh, I'm sorry,  we've made it this deep into the post, and you don’t know Nick Swardson? Let me try to You might recognize him and not know it. He is the late joining member of Adam Sandler's crew, the one who joined right around the time Sandler stopped creating anything innovative or funny. In fact, Nick Swardson's lone lead role is in the lowest rated movie of all time on Rotten Tomatoes.

Swardson's career started as a stand up in the Twin Cities. He's not clever, not particularly witty, but he's always been affable, and seems like he must be a good guy to have in a circle of friends, but as a representative for your group? I mean, his most famous bit involves a ghost with flatulence. Not a hell of a lot of nuance there.

A look down his twitter timeline suggests a blind allegiance to the Vikings, which is excellent for the purposes of this piece, but also not so great because the Tweets are generally just SKOL with some emojis, or a crude expression of sexual gratification because of the success of the team.

For a famous person, Nick Swardson has an alarmingly low degree of talent, and is especially barren of the skills it would take to be any sort of ambassador for the city.

And now with the scandals besetting so many Minnesota figures, like the well spoken Al Franken and Garrison Keillor, there aren't even many revered candidates that simply have Minnesota ties, if not ties to the Vikings, that could step up and be the public face of Minnesota sports that make a whole lot of sense. None that are actively putting out fresh content, or are often in the public spotlight now.

Cameras during the game, and in the lead up to the game will be drawn to the shining stars that might represent the town. Given the successes of the team this season, the Vikings in the Super Bowl would further the demand for a local face to put on this event.

Jacob Frey or Melvin Carter, freshly elected mayors of the Twin Cities would be capable ambassadors, of course, as would Senator Amy Klobuchar or Governor Mark Dayton, but they don't possess the readymade celebrity of, well, readymade celebrities. They do have the ear of the people, however, which Swardson does not. That could be a useful tool as well.

Yes, Swardson, and probably Andrew Zimmern and a couple of other more tolerable celebrities will make TV appearances in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, but on the ground, the visitors will be interacting with us. With you and me. Sure, Swardson can get out there and give us a black eye, but people that come here, the international media and football fans the world over, and appreciate the hospitality organized by local leaders and provided by us. We can leave them with a good impression.

There will be a lot of new attention paid to the Twin Cities this February, as the Cities fill up with out of towners and media from across the world. If you ever want this kind of attention lavished on the Twin Cities again, it behooves Minnesotans everywhere to be on our best behavior, and ensuring that the cameras look to the city, rather than its celebrities. 

Lafayette redevelops with a foot in the past and in the future

The city of Lafayette, Indiana, opposite the Wabash River from the college town of West Lafayette, is an old, history laden town, reflective of the nearby Rust Belt more so than its contemporary suburb to the west. Lafayette, being the larger town, has always tried to establish itself as an important regional center, independent of its neighbor, despite sharing its name.

West Lafayette is a constant state of rejuvenation because of its transient and youthful population. Cash comes into the town, through the state university and the tuition that comes from Chicago,Indianapolis and further afield. Lafayette sees a little bit of an economic boost, as the city hosts some student housing, and downtown is right across the river from some of Purdue's Greek residences, but for the most part, Lafayette is on its own.

Because of the stability of Lafayette's population, as opposed to the transience in West Lafayette, there is a greater stake in any redevelopment, with an overwhelming demand for long term utility, as opposed to cashing in on the latest craze. Despite a lower amount of cash flow for residents of Lafayette, the economy is reliable, and residents are able to be patient and considerate when looking forward.

Lafayette's 5 points intersection

Lafayette is home to some important manufacturers, with Subaru, Caterpillar and Alcoa, among others, all maintaining operations there. The town's history as a railroad and river town make it a historic hub for unrefined raw materials as well, with everything from grain to chemicals all passing through the region.

While the downtown area frequently sees new vendors move in, thanks to the easy accessibility from Purdue's campus, the rest of the city has remained in something of a stasis, aside from the burgeoning population at the outer reaches of the city and the fleet of chain restaurants along I-65. The growth at the outer reaches of the city, unlike the updates that West Lafayette sees, has more to do with the similar expansion of its corporate operators, rather than the success of Purdue University. 

With that in mind, the city of Lafayette is attempting to update some of the older portions of town, so as to accommodate a growing population, and to maintain the city's livability for residents who haven't spent their entire life in this little corner of Indiana. Lafayette, most importantly, is trying to stay Lafayette, rather than having its image being covered up by West Lafayette.

The most ambitious part of their redevelopment is the Five Points intersection just at the top of the hill coming out of the immediate Wabash Valley, and nearly approaching the suburban/interstate sprawl of I-65. It is essentially the outermost reaches of the original Lafayette.

Another factor in the desire to renovate this particular part of town, at the multi-faceted intersection of Main, South and 18th Street is that it is the nexus of many routes passing through town, connecting many different neighborhoods, including downtown, the Interstate sprawl, the neighborhoods to the north and retail to the south. It's a high traffic tract of land.

The 5 Points intersection of days past

With the renovations of Columbian Park nearby, the Five Points segment of the city can be a showpiece for the city of Lafayette. Most to the point, with the visibility, coupled with its central location and distance from Lafayette's younger, hipper neighbor, this is a development that can be Lafayette.

Right now, the city of Lafayette is rightly looking at the existing structures In the area in an attempt to renovate, rather than replace those buildings. There are a few notable historic buildings in the neighborhood, including a former firehouse that now serves as a municipal museum. One relic of the past that the city will likely try to amend is the nightmare inducing intersection itself.

West of the intersection, highway 26 splits to become the two primary, one way arteries through downtown Lafayette. 26, or South Street, then intersects with 18th Street a few hundred feet later, while 18th, continuing South from 26, intersects with Main Street, which continues northwest to encounter South Street where it splits. Confused? Why wouldn't you be?

I'm no city planner, but this junction, this confused mess, would be well served by being reorganized into a square or plaza, to account for all of the intersecting roads, and to get cars to slow down for local businesses. Never mind the central location, and the connectedness of the roadways, the platting of this area commands attention all its own.

Five Points represents what could be an important inflection point in the city. It depends on how deeply Lafayette commits to the changes for the region. Will they spruce up the historic structures that occupy the intersection now? Or will it be completely gutted, turning the intersection into a modern focal point for the Greater Lafayette area, complete with reworked traffic patterns and all new commercial structures?

Right now, it appears that the city will move towards the former option, which makes sense. Lafayette is latching on to its past and moving forward as its own pace. Lafayette will be Lafayette, and nothing more. 

Selling out

Usually, when a young fan or artist shames another for "selling out" there is a hint of jealousy. The sell-outer, if I can coin a term, generally sees their music and style change as much because they are introduced to better technology and production values as they are changing their own point of view to align with what the market demands.

The Go Go's really sold out though. It's hard to believe, listening to their catalogue of hits that they started as a punk band in southern California. Belinda Carlisle is on record as being heavily involved in the punk scene, and has been very open about, shall we say, how, involvedshe was.

The smash hit of the early popular era Go Go's was probably We Got the Beat, which is decidedly not punk. It's fun, catchy and almost airheaded. It seems as though the women who made up the Go Go's, had they heard the song a few years earlier, would have hated it. What happened?

Punk fans might say that The Go Go's sold out. Musically, by the 80's and especially with Carlisle when she went solo by the middle of the decade, that was certainly the case. Unlike many that have sold out, they didn't sell their souls, just their style. To coin a phrase, the Go Go's were still punk on the inside.

There was some remnant of punk in the pacing of their earlier work. Carlisle's voice was too pure, too melodic to withstand the harsher elements of her punk contemporaries. If you listen to the backing base in their music, however, you will hear a faster beat than you might initially anticipate. Taken independently, Carlisle's vocals don't seem to make much sense with the instrumentals, but the ultimate reason for their national success was that the elements do indeed all come together, which is a credit to their songwriting.

Carlisle's name stayed in the public consciousness as she continued to top the charts with mainstream songs like "Heaven is a Place on Earth." Carlisle wasn't even in rock anymore, let alone punk. She had turned pop, doing the improbable, selling out two different genres.

Undoubtedly, selling out has its tangible benefits. You likely never would have heard of the Go Go's had it not been for their pop turn. Belinda Carlisle would never have articles written about her use of a private terminal in Los Angeles. For punk stars turned pop stars, though, there is one definite advantage to selling out: gaining a bigger platform.

Punk is the original version of alternative music. Whether it's the 70s' Go Go's or the 90s' Green Day,

the groups had something in common. They sought to differentiate themselves musically from the staid music of their particular generation. In their view, there was something wrong with music as it was popularly consumed, and they strived to make their own brand of art.

Innate in their sense of the world is the idea that there was something wrong with the status quo. As they mature, they grow into principled adulthood. Perhaps their views don't align with yours, but they are comfortable with speaking out against injustice, perceived or otherwise after a lifetime of fighting against the establishment, albeit a more open minded music making establishment.

One thing the Go Go's never stepped back from, even if their sound changed, was their willingness to be outspoken on things that mattered to them. Carlisle, in particular, has been an activist for PETA, gay rights (particularly when her son came out) and against the current presidential administration. A quick check of her Twitter feed reveals a nearly steady stream of activism.

The Go Go's certainly sold out musically, but with their co-opting a pop music sound, and Carlisle veering towards the sound of some contemporary divas, but with it came a broader platform. If they had stayed within the LA punk scene, they may never have continued a music career that lasted for decades. Their message, especially when they found their message fueled in outreach and activism, would not have changed any minds or hearts.

In the ways that truly matter, the Go Go's never truly sold out. They kept their counterculture principles which dovetailed into a humanitarian activism in their adulthood. They continued to speak out for issues they were passionate about. Indeed, selling out musically was a means to an end. Not only did the Go Go's prove that a group of women could make music together, they also showed the world how to sell out properly.