BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JAN. 10, 2018) — With the recent thaw in below zero temps, THE PLANET deems we can justify thoughts of spring. “Spring” — a word that harbors hope, the breath inside the seed that waits for a slight warming of earth before the green spear […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JAN. 8, 2018) — Tonight, early evening, the most anticipated event since the city’s charter in the 18th century, and certainly since Pittsfield’s incorporation in 1891, takes place. Mountains quake, Angels tremble, and the twiglight of the gods once again finds sunrise. And […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JAN. 5-7, 2018) — THE PLANET heralded the warning in September 2016 and after in print, cyberspace, radio, and TV, continuing to November’s E-Day. Our efforts, alas, came to naught, going up as they were against the concreted apathy that yearly enables The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY JAN. 2, 2018) — As THE PLANET extends a Happy Always to you, let us resume our mission of sharing the news you don’t and won’t get anywhere else. Former churches, for example. You’ve no doubt head that local developer David Carver plans to […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS TO NEW YEAR’S DAY, 2017-18) — Let’s kiss another year goodbye. Let the kiss be welcomed and enjoyed, without a trace presumption or perfunction. THE PLANET saw, endured, and welcomed many changes this years — privately, personally, and professionally — and each was or […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 22-24, 2017) — Welcome to official winter. This time, it appears a national search was enacted, which might be the most significant story to hit The Berkshires since O.B. Joyful shelled his last boiled peanut. As you know, a position of […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 20, 2017) — The lines of separation are thin, and proximity is often closer than you think. When mayor Linda “The Lounger” Tyer slipped back into the Beacon Cinema‘s Craft*Matic chaise, she exhibited the same tone deafness that she dragged to the […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 18, 2017) — In our earliest grades of grammar school, THE PLANET wrote in ink with a fountain pen. Long about fifth grade, ballpoints became popular, and the best were the pens by BIC. They were inexpensive and never failed. Moreover, for a […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 15-17, 2017) — Last month, THE PLANET‘s Right Honorable Goods Friends on the Pittsfield City Council met (Committee of the Whole, a special gathering to discuss an issue out of formal, regularly scheduled session) to take out the garbage. Even then, citizen […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 13, 2017) — Recently, THE PLANET watched a WWII propaganda film made in the early 40s in which Ward Bond (Maj. Seth Adams of Wagon Train) and Robert Young (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby M.D.) play Nazis. They were as convincing as The Suits in the City of Pittsfield telling […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 11, 2017) — After a trip shopping, the passenger in my car wanted a swig from THE PLANET‘s electrolyte-laced water. She took the bottle, and said, “It’s half full.” She was correct? Is the glass (the can, the memory stick, the bleachers, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, DEC. 8-10, 2017) — The piranhas sense the bull being tossed into the river. The feeding frenzy has begun. Since Statehouse Democrats in Boston forced chamber president Stan Rosenberg to “temporarily” step down, Beacon Hill has undergone an unprecedented battle for a leadership […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY DEC. 6, 2018) — What passes for the leadership at the Statehouse finds itself in the boiling cauldron. Stop THE PLANET if you’ve heard this one before. We’ve lost count. How many House speakers on Beacon Hill had to leave their positions because of charges, indictments, […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 4, 2017) — The U.S. Senate did what most citizens in Pittsfield desperately need and for which many folks clamor in vain: They cut taxes, for corporations, small businesses, and the middle class. Like everything else these days, the action gets explained in […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, DEC. 1-3, 2017) — Welcome to December, month of the crab, month of the sister. With so many follies bespotting the city of Pittsfield, once again THE PLANET must telescope several items each worthy of its own full-length treatment. Such is […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY NOV. 29, 2017) — ThHE PLANTET warned you, ah, but as spledor flashes and flails, it made no difference. The city stands hellbent to install a toter garbage system that’s going to cost taxpayers a fortune, worsen blight, and prove impractical. So naturally, Mayor Trashcan and Kufflinks, her […]
