If Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter is anything besides a world-famous party and fashion photographer, he's an educator. And among the many subjects on which he is qualified to teach is the complicated and confusing world of hipster fashion. But wait, you say, isn't hipster fashion a lawless wasteland of hoodless sweatshirts and lensless glasses where anything goes? Well, yes, in a sense, but this is advanced stuff, and diving in unprepared could get you shunned. So with the help of this Cobrasnake gallery of the BESS LA + cobrashop Sale Launch Party, let's get you up to speed. More»

Who, or what, is the winter hipster? For those of us currently enjoying 75° January weather, that question can be somewhat hard to answer. In much the same way that Polar Bears and Black Bears have adapted to their separate climates, so too have Colorado hipsters evolved a style both unique to their own environmental challenges but in line with the overall genus. For more proof, let's check out The Cobrasnake's shots in Denver from Nike Shoe Shine 2012, a party featuring artists' reinterpretations of the Nike snowboard boot. More»

If you follow The Cobrasnake's adventures, which generally consist of touring with Steve Aoki and partying with Katy Perry, you'd know that he doesn't get out of bed in the morning (or whenever he gets out of bed) for anything less than an A-List rager. So on first glance, an unofficial Apple fan convention in San Francisco wouldn't seem like a slam-dunk option. Then again, this is Macworld, the biggest unofficial event of its kind, and the lineup of bands and DJ's is probably the best one going in SF this week, so maybe it makes more sense than we realize. More»

Even if you've never been to a party at Chateau Marmont, you've surely heard the stories. Led Zeppelin riding motorcycles through the lobby, Belushi turning Bungalow 3 into a 24-hour celebrity coke den (and of course, eventually getting carried out on a gurney), and a thousand other stories of excess, heartbreak, and pure insanity. It's only appropriate that ever-popular alt-media powerhouse VICE, which is on the verge of breaking into L.A. with several branded movie and TV-show deals, would insist on not throwing their "VICE Kills Hollywood" celebration anywhere but Chateau. More»

Do you ever get the feeling that Google is the James Franco of internet giants? Despite completely dominating their chosen field of online searches, they're convinced that they can do everything else better, too, from email, to social networking, to gender-bending fashion photography. Wait, that last one might have only been James Franco. Anyway, Google's latest project (with T-Mobile) is Google Music, a cloud-based iTunes-killer that launched last week with an absolute blowout at the La Brea studio of beloved Exit Through The Gift Shop French graffiti maestro Mr. Brainwash, and featured some very, very big names. More»

In Roman Polanski's classic film Chinatown, Chinatown is presented as a lawless wasteland, a place so inherently insane that Jack Nicholson has no recourse but to accept the shocking things he's seen. In that way (and likely in that way alone), Roman might actually approve of last weekend's absolutely insane launch party for the Brent Bolthouse-produced party for the upcoming video game Rage, featuring a live outdoor C-Town performance from The Black Keys. More»

[Photos via] While we've been mourning the end of summer by taking vacations, visiting family and proving that you can fit an entire bottle of wine into the new size cup at Starbucks, The Cobra Snake has been following his good buddy DJ Steve Aoki around the country as he headlines his very own Dim Mak stage at Identity Festival. But like all good SoCal boys, they know when it's time to come home, and over the weekend the Festival returned to blow the doors off of the Hollywood Palladium.

I'm going to be out of town this weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't mourn the death of Sunset Junction almost as much as those of you who were planning to be there. And I say that not because I believe community is important, or because I really want you guys to have a good time, or anything suspiciously selfless like that. I say it because street fairs and music festivals are a phenomenal source of weirdos and colorful characters. More»