William Faulkner once said that "the past is never dead. It's not even past." More than ever, the past is the present, as well as the future, and dead is barely dead. On the Internet, all of time exists at the exact same time. The ease with which we are able to rediscover, recontextualize and remix the past, to unmoor old loves and new obsessions from a fixed temporal point and bring them into the now, means that no artist is ever truly over, even in death. Tumblr has done more than any other website to mash together images of the past and the present until there's no need to differentiate between Drake, Prince and Biggie; they're all equally now online. That's why we asked Tumblr to provide us with images of celebrity tombstones for our Nowstalgia issue, including the final resting places of Rick James, Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe. On one level, these monuments are (often literally) concrete homes for dearly departed artists, but they're also just one more place for fans to direct undying love, one more moment from then to hold on to, one more way for them to always be here, one last thing they can share with us. -- Michael Tedder
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Elvis Presley's grave photographed by Celine Ponce ihatemrbrody.tumblr.com
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Andy Warhol's grave photographed by Madelyn Roehrig andys-figments-book.tumblr.com
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Rick James grave photographed by Katie Hill lunytreklock.tumblr.com
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Brittany Murphy's grave photographed by Lisa Voorhees aprilfool29.tumblr.com
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Marilyn Monroe's grave photographed by Alexandria Parker eclecticlifepolicy.tumblr.com
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Karl Marx grave photographed by Kaylie McKelvey kaylie.tumblr.com
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Carl Morgan Bigsby grave photographed by Mark S. Melville gravesthataregoofy.tumblr.com
Elvis Presley's grave photographed by Celine Ponce ihatemrbrody.tumblr.com
Andy Warhol's grave photographed by Madelyn Roehrig andys-figments-book.tumblr.com
Rick James grave photographed by Katie Hill lunytreklock.tumblr.com
Brittany Murphy's grave photographed by Lisa Voorhees aprilfool29.tumblr.com
Marilyn Monroe's grave photographed by Alexandria Parker eclecticlifepolicy.tumblr.com
Karl Marx grave photographed by Kaylie McKelvey kaylie.tumblr.com
Carl Morgan Bigsby grave photographed by Mark S. Melville gravesthataregoofy.tumblr.com
