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......

Monday Porochista Khakpour presents Sons and Other Flammable Objects 7pm @ Dutton's Kenneth Turan presents Never Coming to a Theater Near You 7pm @ Studio City Branch Library Tuesday Susan Faludi presents The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America 7pm @ Central Library Max Brooks presents World War Z 7pm @ Book Soup Walter Mosley presents Blonde Faith 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center President Vicente Fox discusses and signs Revolution of Hope......

THURSDAY • Paul Ruscha will be signing books for his exhibit "Full Moon" tonight during the Second Thursday Downtown Art Walk from 6–9 PM at Pharmaka Gallery. • Also during the Art Walk, El Nopal Press hosts an opening reception for "The Russian Prints," recent works by Peter Liashkov, also from 6–9 PM. El Nopal Press is located at 109 West 5th Street, between Main and Spring. For more info, call (213) 239-0417. •......

L.A. news junkies would do well to check out Michael Kinsley's first column as Opinion Editor of the Los Angeles Times. While LAist appreciates Kinsley's amiable liberal style, we also hope to see the Times' opinion page take on local politics with a little more gusto and vigor. Keep those city councilmembers on their toes, guys! In an admirable show of editorial restraint, Kinsley spiked his very first column for the Times, in which he......