MARY ELLEN CARROLL

MARY ELLEN CARROLL

CINEMA VILLAGE/ STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Billowing American flag

Bus deposits people

Birds squawk and chirp, jets fly overhead

The urban haiku above was pulled from my notes on Mary Ellen Carroll's Federal and is a fairly complete summary of its action. Shot in real time on July 28, 2003, this two-part video (the halves were shot, and are screened, concurrently) is a twenty-four-hour record of the northern and southern facades of the federal building in Los Angeles, and was shown exactly two years later at Cinema Village in conjunction with an exhibition of twenty-four photographs of the northern facade at Storefront for Art …

Swayze checks out of hospital, publicist says

Patrick Swayze has been released from the hospital one week after checking himself in with pneumonia, his publicist said Friday.

Publicist Annett Wolf would not elaborate on the actor's condition but told The Associated Press he "is well enough to have been released." He is now resting at his Los Angeles home, Wolf said.

Swayze, who has battled pancreatic cancer for the last year, checked himself into a hospital Jan. 9 for observation after contracting pneumonia.

The 56-year-old announced last March he was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer. Some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his …

Iraqi raids on Iranian oil sites smash truce

MANAMA, Bahrain A six-week truce in the Persian Gulf tanker warwas shattered Saturday when Iraqi warplanes attacked Iranian offshoreoil installations, setting an Iranian ship ablaze.

Iran, which threatened to retaliate by striking against Kuwaititankers escorted in the gulf by U.S. warships, said the attacks wouldbe met with a "crushing response." Iran regards Kuwait as an ally ofIraq.

An Iranian military spokesman said the presence of U.S. ships inthe gulf was supporting "the creation of crisis" and that the Iraqistrikes "have undoubtedly been carried out in coordination with theUnited States."

In Washington, the State Department responded to the …

Iran: Sanctions Won't Derail Enrichment

HASHTGERD, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Wednesday that sanctions will not stop Iran from enriching uranium after a European negotiator conceded "endless hours" of talks had made little progress and suggested the dispute could wind up at the U.N. soon.

The talks had been seen as a last-ditch attempt to avoid a full-blown confrontation between Iran and the U.N. Security Council after Tehran ignored an Aug. 31 deadline to suspend enrichment - a key step toward making nuclear weapons - or face punishment.

The latest comments - and the view of senior U.N. diplomats who told The Associated Press on Tuesday that nearly two years of intermittent negotiations had …

Today in History - March 26

Today is Wednesday, March 26, the 86th day of 2008. There are 280 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 26, 1958, the U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer 3.

On this date:

In 1804, the Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.

In 1827, composer Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna.

In 1892, poet Walt Whitman died in Camden, N.J.

In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first U.S. team to win the Stanley Cup as they defeated the Montreal Canadiens.

In 1958, "The Bridge on the River …

Arrested over $13.80 cab fare

An argument over 20 cents' worth of cab fare has $875,000-a-year Blackhawks star winger Patrick Kane facing a felony robbery charge.

Kane -- who's scheduled to start U.S. Olympics orientation camp next week -- gave the team a black eye and even caught his mother off guard Sunday when he and his cousin were charged with assaulting a cabdriver in his native Buffalo, N.Y.

Kane, 20, and his cousin James Kane, 21, are accused of grabbing back the $15 they gave the driver when he said he was 20 cents short of giving them change for their $13.80 fare. It was "after 4 a.m." and they had caught a cab from Buffalo's Chippewa Street Nightlife district, according to the police …

Summer ARTIST in RESIDENCE Rafi Ghanaghounian

The Project: Draw Your Own Celebrity!

Our Artist: Our newest Artist in Residence is Rafi Ghanaghounian. Ghanaghounian is an independent curator in Toronto and has been for the last 15 years. He has run galleries from spaces all over the city, including the influential Anoush Gallery in Kensington Market and he loves bringing people together from different cultural and aesthetic backgrounds and seeing what comes out of it. This explains his readiness to take on the first slot as the revamped Broken Pencil Artist in Residence.

His Project! The State of Fame. Ghanaghounian's project asks participants to depict a celebrity using whatever materials they desire. Artistic …