As you all know, Michael Jackson, King of Pop and one of the most successful and influential performers of all time, died yesterday at the age of 50 from a heart attack.

When he died, I was at a Digital Media Camp at Stanford. We had been waiting for internet access for four days, and when we got it, Michael Jackson had been dead for seven minutes. A murmur immediately went up among the people in the room, with a couple high-pitched yells of surprise. One of the hip-hoppers (I don't remember who) yelled, "Michael Jackson's dead? That's fucked up!"

A couple hours later, the campers were at dinner. The doors of the dining hall bore signs in English and French proclaiming, "The King Is Dead," much like the signs that went up after Elvis Presley's death. At the dining hall, I saw my friend Julian (you may know him as Rehab Crew frontman Julian Kenny), who was going to another Digital Media camp, waving at me to tell me the news. He seemed very upset by the singer's death--Julian has always been a huge fan of Jackson and cites him as a major vocal influence--and was busy texting the news to every person in his contacts.

When we got back, the campers were still reeling from the shock of Jackson's death. Two people received anonymous texts saying something like "Since Michael Jackson is 99% plastic, his body will be melted down into LEGO bricks so little kids can play with him instead." This, my friends, is the state of the world today. Michael Jackson, one of the most famous, influential, and successful musicians of the modern era, had his musical career overshadowed by the masses due to something nobody knows for sure he even did. Now, he will likely be viewed by a large percentage of the people on this earth as a dead creep, not the brilliant and influential performer he was.

To whoever sent those texts: let the poor guy rest in peace and get yourself a girlfriend.