Link List #90: Roald Dahl’s writing hut, 100 years of Egon Schiele’s nudes, and what exactly makes a company “genius”? - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

Link List #90: Roald Dahl’s writing hut, 100 years of Egon Schiele’s nudes, and what exactly makes a company “genius”?

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Once again we’ve scoured the internet for the most interesting articles from the last two weeks. First stop is New York City and one food critic’s guide on what to eat if you only have limited time to spend but boundless options. From there we move on to the global phenomenon of “desire lines”—manmade pathways that defy the wishes of city planners—and pull back the curtains of ten rooms where some of the world’s favorite novels were created.

Links

    • 1 Only got 24 hours to spend in one of the most diverse food cities in the world? Well, you’re in luck because for her most recent advice column at The New Yorker, food critic Hannah Goldfield has tackled the question of what to eat if you only have one day in New York City. There are bagel and pizza joints for the traditionalists, but, for those who want to go beyond the usual fare, Goldfield also includes the best spots in in the city for carnitas tacos and Malaysian-style coffee. Warning: this list might be bad for your health.
    • 2 Calling all book nerds: for this article on Literary Hub, Emily Temple looks inside the rooms where 20 famous books were written. From the bright and airy home library where Ernest Hemingway penned For Whom the Bell Tolls to the tiny hut where Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it turns out that inspiration really can strike anywhere; including, as in the case of William Faulkner, a coal power plant in Mississippi.
    • 3 TIME Magazine has released its first annual collection of the 50 Most Genius Companies of 2018. Accessing businesses on their originality, influence, success, and ambition, the list includes household names such as Disney alongside newcomers like Lishot, who invented a keyring-sized device that tests whether water is safe to drink.
    • 4 The Vienna tourist board caused a bit of a stir recently when it tried to advertise its yearlong retrospective of Viennese Modernism with posters of Egon Schiele’s nudes. Despite being over 100 years old, these risque paintings fell foul of both Austrian and international advertising regulators—prompting a lively discussion on how explicit public art can be and inspiring the hashtag #ToArtItsFreedom. Read more on The Guardian.
    • 5 Here at FvF, we’ve spent more than a little time talking to city planners, so it was with some interest that we read this article in The Guardian on the phenomenon of “desire lines.” Also known as pirate paths, free-will ways, and social trails, these unofficial tracks are what happens when “city dwellers… ‘write back’ to city planners, giving feedback with their feet.”

Hopefully you enjoyed the reads from this week’s Link List, but if you’ve still got an internet itch to scratch, you can find more here.

Also, be sure to check out FvF Mixtapes for some tracks selected by our friends and favorite artists, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with FvF stories.

Text: FvF team
Photography: Ana Hop

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