Tired of interior design rags with overly posed and styled rooms? Apartamento celebrates the everyday interior. Well worn objects and spaces championed over the shiny and new. The magazine launched just recently, with its first issue a Summer/Fall 2008 production. In its pages, interiors lead to personal stories and the peculiarities that make each individual place special to its inhabitant. Worth seeking out.

A few page views from Apartamento Magazine Issue 1 after the jump.

Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man in New York. For more than fifty years, his friends made a circle whose circumference was vast and whose center was a fashionable tenement on New York’s East Seventy-second street. Taxi drivers, hearing his address, would ask, “Isn’t that George Plimpton’s place?” George was always giving parties for his friends. It was one of the ways this generous man of style and culture gave back

In George, Being George people feel free to say what guests say at parties when the subject of the conversation isn’t around anymore. Some even prove the adage that no best-loved man goes unpunished. Together, they provide a complete portrait of George Plimpton. They talk about his life: its privileged beginnings, its wild and triumphant middle, its brave, sad end. They say that George was a man of many parts: “the last gentleman”; founder and first editor of one of our best literary magazines, The Paris Review; the graceful writer who brought the New Journalism to sports in bestsellers such as Paper Lion, Bogey Man, and Out of My League; and Everyman’s proxy boxer, trapeze artist, stand-up comic, Western movie villain, and Playboy centerfold photographer. And one of the brave men who wrestled Sirhan Sirhan, the armed assassin of his friend Bobby Kennedy, to the ground. I life worth reading about. $19.80, available at Amazon.

Located at Phillips de Pury, the New York Art Book Fair brings together art books, catalogs, ‘zines and artists books in a single sale. The fair is put together by Printed Matter and takes place from tomorrow through to the end of the weekend. Antiquarian book dealers mingle with publishers, if your in the neighborhood join in too. Admission is free.

Much noise has been generated over Zaha Hadid’s Chanel Pavilion. Located in Central Park, the structure is designed to house a pop up exhibition of art inspired by the 2.55 handbag. Entry is free, but requires advanced RSVP. The event itself an overindulgent exercise. Few people have understood Chanel’s marketing campaign as well as Nicolai Ouroussoff. His article in today’s New York Times, “Zaha Hadid’s Chanel Pavilion,” hits the nail right on the head. Bravo Mr. Ouroussoff! Many thanks are needed for putting the lunacy of this “exhibit” in firm context.

Read the piece here.

Unforgettable Steve McQueen is the definitive picture book on the legendary icon who starred in such movies as The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, and The Towering Inferno. He’s a legend not just because of the macho roles he played but because having been a juvenile delinquent, Marine, oilfield roughneck, lumberjack, producer, motorcycle racer, sports car driver, and Hollywood King of Cool. The sum of those things has created what is the Steve McQueen style. The book captures his life stories in photographs by Sid Avery, William Claxton, Raymond Depardon, Larry Kastendiek, and others, as well as vintage selections from various archives and featuring a foreword by Brad Pitt. Available now at Amazon, $37.80.

“When he opened his tiny recording studio in New York in 1940, Moses Asch had a larger-than-life dream: To document and record all the sounds of his time. He created Folkways Records to achieve his goal, not just a record label but a statement that all sounds are equal and every voice deserves to be heard. The Folkways catalog grew to include a myriad of voices, from world- and roots-music to political speeches; the voices of contemporary poets and steam engines; folk singers Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie and jazz pianists Mary Lou Williams and James P. Johnson; Haitian vodoun singers and Javanese court musicians; deep-sea sounds and sounds from the outer ring of Earth’s atmosphere. Until his death in 1986, Asch—with the help of collaborators ranging from the eccentric visionary Harry Smith to academic musicologists—created more than 2000 albums, a sound-scape of the contemporary world still unequalled in breadth and scope. Worlds of Sound documents this improbable journey.”

Author Richard Carlin worked for Folkways Records from 1975 to 1980. He has written several books on folkways and music. Worlds of Sound is his latest and is out now from Harper Collins.

The table of contents for Worlds of Sound can be found after the jump.

Most of you should know by now that we are fans of Tyler Brulé’s Monocle magazine. The November issue has just been released and once again it is on point. From stories on the new Ace Hotel New York to choosing food spots in Toyko with APC’s Jean Touitou, there is a lot of good stuff in the new issue.

The highlight though, its the Monocle x Louis Vuitton Tokyo City guide. Celebrating the launch of the official Louis Vuitton Tokyo City Guide, Monocel got together with Louis Vuitton Japan and created a poster edition of the guide. Not only does it give you the latest hotspot hotels and restaurants, you also get a piece of artwork by Leiji Matsumoto.

Have a further look at the guide after the jump.

Taschen expands their empire and recently opened their new London flagship store. Designed just like all their other stores by superstar designer Philippe Starck, the store of course turned out pretty nice and houses a book store and gallery.

“TASCHEN is delighted to announce the opening of its London store today, 6 October 2008. Located on the newly developed Duke of York Square, just off the Kings Road, right next to the new Saatchi Gallery, the store will stock the entire range of TASCHEN books covering art, photography, architecture, film, lifestyle, travel, pop culture and sex.  The London store follows the huge success of TASCHEN’s five stores around the world, in Paris, Cologne, New York, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.” Via Dezeen.

Have a further look at the store after the jump.

Every year the French Larousse dictionary comes in a luxury edition. After Moebius and Christian Lacroix, it was Karl Lagerfeld’s turn to remodel the iconic book. Via LaMJC.

The new Larousse by Karl Lagerfeld is set to be released on November 4th.

This week Design Observer posted a fantastic story by Adam Levy on Jack A. Weil, the inventor of the Cowboy Shirt. Aside from the obvious interest to us — a thorough account of an element of work wear in fashion, the marketing of functional garments as stylish and great company history — Levi’s piece captures the moment of American manufacture that should be more frequently celebrated. Read The Inventor of the Cowboy Shirt here.