Crime and punishment are on the discussion table at the Hammer tonight.│Photo by colin.brown via LAist’s flickr pool. FILM* When Hollywood’s Production Code took effect in 1934, the onscreen antics of film characters got decidedly more wholesome. The same rang true for the cartoons of the time. Pre-Code, the animation by major studios was “just as violent, sexy, rude and crude as their live action counterparts. Nudity, naughty words, and outrageous gags involving body......

via BoingBoing TV. Check out RoBo's website for more wacky gadgetry.......

After playing Signor Adolfo Pirelli in the recent movie release of "Sweeney Todd", it looks as Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) might be becoming a choice pick for directors, or maybe just the soup du jour. Steven Spielberg is making an adaptation of the "Trial of the Chicago 7" and Cohen is to be cast as the "self-identified Jewish Road Warrior, communo-anarchist, social and political activist," Abbie Hoffman. The co-founder of the Youth International......

Who woulda thunk? In the latest episode of BBC Radio 4's Document, host Mike Thomson investigates a purported coup orchestrated by Prescott Bush and several influential American families that sought (but obviously failed) to overthrow FDR and institute a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. of A a la Hitler and Mussolini: "Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by a group of right-wing American businessmen . The coup was......

- If you're looking for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in LA public libraries, you will be sorely disappointed - LAT - Right now Eddie Van Halen is in rehab - TMZ - The USC football lockerroom is colorless, says black Trojan running backs and special teams coach Todd McNair, who dubbed the kickoff team The White Nation, and calls the other black coaches Brojans. Controversy brewed yesterday when one of the students created......

Xeni Jardin is a long-time contributor and co-editor of the mighty BoingBoing. She's a Contributing Writer for Wired and you can also hear her quite often on your radio if its tuned into . Recently she traveled to Guatemala (just getting back home this week) and blogged about it beautifully on her travel blog. Because she's perfect, when we asked her to compile a list, she chose "Top ten places to buy things that......

With the year winding down, LAist is asking famous celebs, local politicians, and other movers & shakers of LA to tell us what they thought were tops of 2006 Mark Frauenfelder is the co-founder of the wildly successful blog BoingBoing, which many charts rank as the most popular blog in the galaxy. When he's not telling people where to go on the blogosphere, he's helping people create amazing things via MAKE magazine, for which......

With the year winding down, LAist is asking famous celebs, local politicians, and other movers & shakers of LA to tell us what they thought were tops of 2006. Before founding PostSecret, Frank Warren grew up in the Valley and attended Colfax Elementary School with Adam Carolla. If you missed his book signing last month, you can catch him on January 15th at Borders Books in Torrance as he signs the next PS book, "The......

The modern day saints in the movie industry have somehow convinced Los Angeles Boy Scouts that the virtues of copyrights are on par with first aid and citizenship. So, yes, modern day LA Scouts can get a merit badge for showing that they demonstrate an understanding of digital law. Take that, knots! Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three......

COOP doesn't play. If you tell him you're going to have a couple dozen questions emailed to him, and you shoot them to him, when you come back from your little party, there they are, answered, beautifully, honestly, no problems, no worries. The man is a pro. He takes his art just as seriously. Well, as seriously as you can take big-tittie devil girls and hot rods and demons and now Atari joysticks. He's your......

Business 2.0 seems to confuse being successful and getting major ad dollars on a blog with becoming mainstream. Although we can see their 1.0 thinking, the gloriously lo-fi NSFW Fark turning mainstream? Not farking likely, fellas. Boing Boing, a four-person operation that bills itself as a directory of wonderful things, is on track to gross an estimated $1 million in ad revenue this year. The digital-media news site PaidContent.org, headquartered in the second bedroom......

+ Neither Nicole nor Paris fared well with the GoFugYourself gals on Tuesday's Sidekick3 red carpet in front of the Palladium + Speaking of the Sidekick party, the world's greatest party photographer, LA's own Cobra Snake, has an incredible gallery of pics from the bash -- including snaps of Mike Tyson, Paris Hilton, and a nice girl waiting for someone to slide with her. We'll be her slidekick. And hey look they even had a......

Liquid Nitrogen + Hotel Swimming Pool + Nerds = oooooooo - via Boing Boing Victoria Silvstedt and her new boyfriend reallllly love each other Tom Petty has a new single with an infectious Bo Diddley riff and is called "Saving Grace". click to stream - via stereogum University researchers claim that the drugs salmeterol or formoterol found in three common inhalers might be responsible for four out of five U.S. asthma-related deaths per year......

We saw these classic Mexican Movie poster lobby cards first on posterwire who saw them referenced on boing boing. ASIFA-Hollywood's art archive in Burbank (and their blog) is a treasure trove of great classic Hollywood animation treats. We're particularly taken with the last two images which feature luchadores doing dastardly things much like we suspect they will do this summer in Jack Black's Nacho Libre. We also couldn't help but wonder what an old......

The Bloggie award nominees are up, and we want to give props to those, em, getting props. Now the voting is open, so hit the page and give your love to those who deserve it. We must note: Locally, the Fug Girls, who take apart celebrity fasion like no one else, for Best American blog, Best Entertainment blog, and Best Writing; This Week in Tech for Best Podcast; the partly-LA Make Blog for Best......

We're still not quite sure what's really going on between the disgruntled former models of Suicide Girls and the company behind the site. From everything we've been able to gather, most of the complaints seem to be about one of the company's owners and founders, Sean Suhl, and the perception of SG as a punk-feminist-free speech advocating adult site versus a reality of what many former employees feel is about censorship and the exploitation......

Videogames are big business, grossing more than $9 Billion in 2004. The top 2 games of 2004, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo2, each alone earned $250 Million. And, some of the largest videogame companies, such as Electronic Arts, have a huge presence here in Los Angeles. As games get more and more popular, the demand for A-list acting talent to lend their voices and faces to games, has increased. According to showbiz......

Whether writing in Wired and numerous publications, reporting on NPR, blogging at Boing Boing, or giving her own LA-centric perspective at blogging.la, Xeni Jardin continually mines the vast marvels of technology, the Internet, and popular culture. Xeni’s career has brought her to Los Angeles, yet she maintains a busy travel schedule that includes appearing at and hosting conferences in places far and wide. So who says the best tech pundits are in San Francisco......

The month changes and it's a huge announcement day around the web. Our northern sibling site, SFist, has joined the newly Yahoo! partnered metroblogging. This is like losing Shaq to the Heat people. Local blogger, Michael Pusateri, announces the launch of his own business, Datafloss. The Fug Girls trade fug for hugs and former angeleno, Rox Populi, channels her polar opposite today. Meanwhile, Boing Boing gets spoofed. Should LAist be sad or glad that......

What does it take to strip the shine from new architectural landmark Disney Hall? Just a couple of unhappy neighbors (see arrow) who are upset that the building throws harsh reflected light upon their apartments. The LA Times, blogging.la and boing boing all report that Gehry and his folks have agreed to tone it down. The squinty residents neglect to mention that in April 2003, 6 months before Disney Hall's opening, a one-bed, two-bath......

There's too much going on Sunday, November 7th. How can we choose between the following lit events all happening on the same night? If we could, we'd start out in the west of Los Angeles at Royce Hall, UCLA in Westwood where Russell Banks converses with Michael Ondanjtee about Film and Fiction while their pal, actor Willem Defoe, just sits between them, exuding dangerous charisma. 8pm Royce Hall, UCLA Live Event Tickets: $35, 28,......

As anyone even remotely near Katella Avenue can tell you, summer in LA means tourist season—especially for Disneyland. I can remember braving the Anaheim summer as a child, being pushed around the park in a stroller, happily oblivious to the sweltering discomfort of an inland island of concrete and asphalt in mid-afternoon. Fortunately, I was also happily oblivious to some of Disney's more sordid historical truths. If you've lived in LA for any amount......