The summer solstice occurs exactly when the axial tilt of a planet’s semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the star that it orbits…and if you haven’t brushed up on your astronomy recently, it’s also means it’s time to party. Midsummer is a celebration based on the summer solstice. In Sweden specifically, Midsummer is take place on the third weekend of June with the main festivities taking place on the Friday of that weekend (this year is looking like June 21st). Read More

Photo: WikiCommons

This past week, the Abba Museum opened in Stockholm, Sweden to hundreds of fans ready to relive the unique saga of the native pop group. (Too bad Marcus, a lifelong fan, wasn’t around for the unveiling.) The museum, in collaboration with the Music Hall of Fame, boasts unparalleled memorabilia, a full-service dance floor and the actual studio console with which Abba recorded their signature sound.

The group, who formed in 1972, released 8 chart-topping albums, won the Eurovision Song Contest and extensively toured the world until their break-up in late 1982; a legacy that would spawn countless tributes to the group. Read More

Food enthusiasts are rarely living in the present. Whether it’s modernist cuisine or nostalgia for days gone by, we are either looking forward or longing for the past, whether we were there or not. Read More

I thought I had New Orleans pinned. In my mind it was always just the Southern metropolis party city that serves chicory coffee twenty-four hours a day. I love to travel and I have always wanted to visit New Orleans but I had never expected the city to challenged me the way others cities did. I thought I had it figured out, until I actually went there. Read More

Like most small hometowns, the beauty of the environment are often lost on people who grow up there; so focused are we on quickly graduating high school so that we can move somewhere more “interesting”. Until moving to New York City from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I had hardly took note of the frequent encounters with wildlife (mostly deer and snakes, but one time a mountain lion) or that my best friend was a Shoshone Native American or how, at that elevation, we could be buried in snow for a couple weeks and lake swimming just a few months later.  Read More

I want to travel everywhere. I think this is a common sentiment. And while I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do some roving in my young life I’m still trying to get to one of my early “destination fascinations”: Senegal and West Africa. Read More

When traveling, my preference is to stay in a hotel with a little edge to it, lest my hard earned money be wasted on a lifeless cement and glass tower that makes me feel like I’m staying inside a conference room. With this in mind, I’m always looking for a cool hotel that reinforces the culture of where it’s located, works with talented and ambitious artists or, at least, provides some unparalleled experience that I can make memories out of. Read More

Describing Macau is one of the more challenging things to put into words. As a former Portuguese colony, it looks a little bit like Europe, but as a Special Administrative Region of China, with about 50,000 Macanese per square mile, it definitely functions more like the Asian metropolis that it is. Read More

The image above was taken during one of my recent trips abroad. The sign might say Harlem, but it couldn’t be located further away from New York. The right answer will win a gift set of Ambessa teas! Tweet me your guesses to @MarcusCooks or Facebook me with your answer.

Photo: ronsho

Living in New York, I find there exists a particularly close connection to Israel. It could be the number of Jewish-Americans that live here, connecting with American-Israelis who’ve made the big move, or the abundance of Israeli tourists that you meet in coffee shops and bars. Maybe I’ve had the lunch special at Hummus Place too many times or found myself gorging, after-hours, on desserts and coffee at Yaffa Café on one too many school nights. Read More