From the Editor

Where are you going this summer? That's the question as we start gearing up for summer vacation. It's time to start thinking about where you'll be spending those precious few weeks recharging your battery. If you're looking for ideas, here are some of the more than 35 you'll find in this issue. First up: New York.

I'd line up to see Laura Bell Bundy in the Broadway show that is based on Legally Blonde (the movie and the book). Bundy took some time off from rehearsing her role as the pretty-in-pink Elle Woods to pose for our cover and talk to our senior managing editor, Martin Lieberman. The interview is found in Idea Makers.

Pink, among other colors, is prominent in frequent contributor Jeff Koehler's story about Mexico City. From the architecture of the influential Luis Barragán, to the art of Frida Kahlo's Cote Azul, to the cornucopia of color on display in the city's markets, Mexico City leaves an indelible impression on your senses.

If you're more apt to discover a place through your sense of taste, Asheville, N.C., should be on your list of cities to explore. In our Go Eat and Go Drink sections this month, we report on how it's fast becoming a haven for fine dining.

Next month, we'll travel to one of the world's oldest cities — soon to be one of the newest on the Continental route map — Athens, Greece.

Until then, happy travels and good reading.

Michael Buller, Editor

Contributors

Timothy Archibald tells us that photographing our cover subject, Laura Bell Bundy, was as much fun as we expected it would be. "Laura is a true performer who had us all in stitches for the duration of the shoot," he says. "The hardest part was keeping her in focus, because we were all laughing so hard." Archibald's work has also appeared in Life, Outside, New Scientist, and Time.

Not surprisingly, Thomas Wailgum learned quite a bit about Bernd Beetz while writing his profile of the Coty Inc. executive. Most interesting was Beetz's appreciation of world cultures. "Over the years, he has immersed himself in whatever region or country he was working in at the time," Wailgum says. "And I think that's why he's so successful." You can read Wailgum's story here.