Frank Ocean - Lost

Apple CEO Tim Cook Tops Out's Power 50

Via press release:

Tim Cook, number 1 on this year’s Power 50 list, took charge of tech giant Apple as CEO in 2011 and has guided the company through significant upgrades on all of its product lines and helped the brand increase its market share to 20% of all money spent on U.S. consumer technology. This year marks the first time Anderson Cooper (No. 5) is publicly out on the list. Meanwhile, Nate Silver, a newcomer to the list, proved to be a wunderkind statistician, prognosticating the 2012 presidential election with, at final count, 100% accuracy on his New York Times blog, FiveThirtyEight.

R&B star Frank Ocean makes his list debut at #10. Closeted homocon Matt Drudge is #21. See the full list.

Chris Brown Sits Out Standing Ovation For Grammy Winner Frank Ocean

Buzzfeed calls Chris Brown "the absolute worst person at the Grammys."

OPEN THREAD: 2013 Grammy Awards

The usual red carpet hubbub is already underway and the show begins at 8PM Eastern.  Gay R&B star Frank Ocean is up for six awards including Best New Artist, Record Of The Year (Thinkin Bout You), and Album Of The Year (channel ORANGE).

Ocean is the first out gay man nominated for Best New Artist, although one might grant asterisks to previous Best New Artist nominees Culture Club (1984) and Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1985) as both acts featured frontmen who were widely known to be gay, even if they hadn't yet explicitly said so. (Culture Club won, Frankie lost to Cyndi Lauper.) In the still-not-out-but-totally-gay category is KC & The Sunshine Band frontman Harry Wayne Casey (1976, lost to Natalie Cole.) Closeted-at-the-time solo male Best New Artist nominees were Elton John (1971, lost to The Carpenters) and Luther Vandross (1982, lost to Sheena Easton).  Green Day was nominated in 1995 (lost to Cheryl Crow) and that year frontman Billie Joe Armstrong came out as bisexual, although he remains married to his wife of 19 years.

As for female acts, Best New Artist winner Tracy Chapman (1989) steadfastly refuses to publicly discuss her private life but is known to date women. The Indigo Girls were widely known to be lesbians at the time of their Best New Artist nomination (1990, lost to Milli Vanilli), but I can't find a date on their "official" coming out. And both Sophie B. Hawkins (1993, lost to Arrested Development) and Joan Osborne (1996, lost to Hootie & The Blowfish) did not come out as bisexual until later.

The awards will be broadcast live with a three hour delay for the Pacific time zone. Therefore those of you on the left coast might want to clock out of the interweb unless you want spoilers. Otherwise dive in and dish the presenters, performances, and winners.

Frank Ocean Vs Chris Brown

TMZ reports:

Chris Brown was involved in an all-out brawl with Frank Ocean Sunday night, and sources connected with Chris insist Ocean started it. Chris was at Westlake Studio in the L.A. area listening to one of the artists he represents. The sources say as Chris went to leave, Frank Ocean and his crew blocked Chris from leaving. The sources say Frank said, "This is my studio, this is my parking spot." We're told Chris went to shake Frank's hand ... and that's when one of Frank's people attacked Chris. Sources connected with Chris say one of Chris' friends jumped in front and hit Frank's friend. Sources connected with Chris say Frank then came at Chris ... Chris pushed him away and they started brawling.

Everest is Frank Ocean's dog, who was credited as "executive producer" on the chart-topping album, Channel Orange.  The New York Daily News says deputies are considering assault charges against Chris Brown.  (Tipped by JMG reader Rick)

Out Star Frank Ocean Lands Grammy Nomination For Best New Artist

The accolades continue to roll in for recently-out R&B star Frank Ocean, who yesterday landed Grammy nominations for Best New Artist, Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, and Best Urban Contemporary Album. Others tapped for Best New Artist are Alabama Shakes, Fun, The Lumineers, and Hunter Hayes. More on the rest of the categories:

There were no major snubs among the top nominees. Most of 2012's inescapable hits are represented in some way -- Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" is up for record of the year and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" garnered a song of the year nod. Drake, Rihanna and Nashville residents Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Jack White and best new artist nominee Hunter Hayes were among 16 nominees with three nods. In many ways the nominations reflect a singles-driven year when no album rose to the level of acclaim as Adele's "21" or West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," which dominated the Grammys last February.

The full list of nominees is here.

Frank Ocean Tops Best Albums List

Frank Ocean's Channel Orange has been named by Spin Magazine as the best album of 2012.

He pleasantly mosied into our consciousness a year ago, but this year Frank Ocean Tumblr'd into the tabloid glare (with subtle grace, it must be said). And, in a shocking turn of events, he deserved every last gush and blush of attention. Despite Kendrick Lamar's undeniable accomplishment, there was never a doubt about 2012's Album of the Year. Roll on, deep and dark blue Ocean, roll.

The rest of Spin's Top 50 is at the link.

Because He Came Out?