Archive | July, 2021
Article

WORDS … TOO MANY WORDS; LET’S TAKE A BREAK WITH SOME PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

PLANET VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 28, 2021)  — We thought today to give everyone a break from reading, seriousness, and all that up-tight stuff. Instead, THE PLANET shares some random photos. In honor of Modeste Mussorgsky, Maurice Ravel, and the late, great Dr. Mort Wayne, we call it […]

Read More
Article

MEET SIMONE BILES, QUITTER

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, JULY 28, 2021) — The best Olympics ever was conducted last year. Yeah, there wasn’t one. The games have become an excuse for nationalism and sponsor’s cash. This year, officials in Tokyo, Japan, decided to push ahead with the faux games. In what THE […]

Read More
Article

WAR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 26, 2021) — On THE PLANET today, War. There has never been … there can never be … a “just war.” The closest humanity can come to that mythic and proverbial creation is when a lesser evil must oppose a greater one, World […]

Read More
Article

NOTORIOUS NEW NORTH-ON-NORTH TRAFFIC PATTERN DIRTY DANCING AT ITS WORST

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 23-5, 2021) — THE PLANET has good and bad news. Good news: We actually saw bikers on North Street downtown. Bad news: Not one was using the “vibrant, dynamic” bike lanes. Our random sampling underscores what we know to be true: […]

Read More
Article

CARELESS, CLUELESS TYER KILLING DOWNTOWN … RJ STOHR IS LEAVING; ARE DOTTIE’S & STEVEN VALENTI’S FAR BEHIND? NOT ACCORDING TO FACEBOOK POSTS

PLANET VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 21, 2021) — Linda Tyer has checked out of the Hotel California. No one knows for sure where she’s been or is — Colorado? El Dorado, Bag-o-Doritos, gated mansion? Doesn’t matter. What matters is that Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski live under the […]

Read More
Article

DISSA AND DATTA: GARBAGE … VRABEL KILLS D.A. DEAL … ‘NO REPLY’ … ‘INCLUSIVE’ … ‘VIBRANT & DYNAMIC’

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 19, 2021) — THE PLANET‘s clock says it’s time to clean out the tickle file, which happens when the funny bone fronts the eye tooth. Fictive — A good friend reminded us recently to be a “keeper of the flame,” a reference to […]

Read More
Article

BIKE MAFIA 7: CITY PURCHASING AGENT — ‘IT GIVES THE IMPRESSION WE’RE TRYING TO AVOID PUBLIC BIDDING LAWS’ … plus … BIKERS OVERRUN PARK, INFLICT HEAVY DAMAGE

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 16-8, 2021) — Did the city of Pittsfield deliberately set up the paperwork for the soon-to-be-desecrated — oops, we mean “dedicated” — bike pump track in such a way that it could perform an end-around on state open bidding laws? […]

Read More
Article

BIKE MAFIA CHRONICLES 6: TUESDAY TOUR REVEALS MONSTROUS SCOPE OF PLANNED BIKE TRACK

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 14, 2021) — THE PLANET spent part of the pleasantly soggy Tuesday tramping through Springside Park. We did it to get a first-hand appreciation for the size of the proposed mountain bike development being pushed there by a tiny handful of backers […]

Read More
Article

BIKE MAFIA CHRONICLES 4 — GARIVALTIS SAYS ‘ANY IMPOSITION OF SPRINGSIDE WILL LEAD TO ITS DEATH’

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 12, 2021) — Like dividends on a hot stock, the Bike Mafia story keeps giving. New information keeps surfacing from the depths. It is up to THE PLANET to give it light, because Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, no other local media will […]

Read More
Article

THE BIKE MAFIA CHRONICLES: McGEE MUST RESIGN … McGRATH MUST CLARIFY

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 9-11, 2021) — Point 1: Alison McGee, Ms. Walking Conflict of Interest, must resign. Question 1: Was Jim McGrath blackmailed into supporting the Bike Mafia’s plans to rip up Mother Nature at Springside Park? Question 2: Does the Parks Commission […]

Read More
Article

CORRECTING AN INJUSTICE: COSBY GOT OUT BECAUSE OF PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 7, 2021) — Phylicia Rashad, Bill Cosby’s TV wife from years back, whacked the hornet’s nest with a bludgeon when she defended a court ruling that freed the comedian from a Pennsylvania prison, where he was serving a 3- to 10-year sentence […]

Read More
Article

NOW PLAYING: “THE INVASION OF THE BIKE MAFIA” … or … McGEE & McGRATH BRING BACK VAUDEVILLE

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 5, 2021) — THE PLANET‘s expose’ of the Bike Mafia’s plans to destroy Springside Park is a story with legs, as they say in the business. It has morphed from the specifics of a particular project into a myth of why ordinary […]

Read More
Article

!PLANET EXCLUSIVE! BOMSHELL REVELATIONS ABOUT BIKE MAFIA’S INTENTIONS FOR SPRINGSIDE PARK

BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY Second of a two-part series (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 2-4, 2021) — Want the kicker on the proposed Mountain Bike Park that proponents are pushing with inside help from city officials? THE PLANET will do two better. We will channel Pete Gogolak and send […]

Read More