News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Tuesday December 16th 2025
Diwali Festival of Lights Event at Midtown Global Market
By J. MARIE FIEGER
The Midtown Global Market partnered with Amol Dixit and his team at Hot Indian to host a multi-layered, family-friendly event in celebration of the Hindu holiday, Diwali, Saturday, October 12th.
Diwali, also known as the Hindu Festival of Lights, is the largest and most widely celebrated Hindu festival. Originating in India, this holiday is an expression of happiness and the victory of light over darkness and good over evil.
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Movie Corner – Joker
By Howard McQuitter
oldschoolmovies.wordpress.com
howardmcquitter68@gmail.com
 “Joker” (2019)
Warner Bros.
4/5 Stars
It”™s Gotham City, circa 1981, but it”™s mood is somber, melancholy, with visual decay from loads of trash and super rats running in and out of fifth, while crime is nearly everywhere. Then, thugs steal purses and wallets; to start the film rolling, Arthur Fleck, an amateur clown by day, is beaten and robbed by roaming bands of thugs. Gotham City really is the future. Actually, what is at play here is a series of snapshots of today”™s American cities”™ disparities balled into one, like in Gotham City, and rancidity rising near boiling point between the wealthy and the poor.
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a.k.a. “Joker”, lives with Penny Fleck (Frances Conroy) in what is one of those apartments with drab hallways and worn-out interiors (that with a little ambition can be made presentable). Arthur suffers from mental illness spending much time in an asylum. One of his most chilling antics is laughing hysterically at almost anything. Arthur aspires to be a stand-up comedian and with his elderly mother (who tried to burn him alive as a child) religiously watch Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), a Johnny Carson-esque nightly TV talk show.… Read the rest “Movie Corner – Joker”
Diahann Carroll: reflections on a groundbreaking career
By DWIGHT HOBBES
Reprinted with permission from Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
October 14, 2019
The late Diahann Carroll broke interesting, transitional ground starring as “Julia” (NBC, 1968-71). Her portrayal of a gracefully dutiful, wholesomely assimilated single mom was the image and embodiment of a white woman with brown skin: Caucasian features, straight hair, and grammatically correct at all times. The character was a widowed, well-paid nurse working for a white doctor, living in white suburbia.
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