BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, AUG. 4, 2015) — QUESTION: How do you stop five teenagers from going on a shooting rampage in Pittsfield? ANSWER: Throw them a basketball. It’s not as simple as that, of course, but as the shootings, stabbings, gang activity, and drug deals make of […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, AUG. 3, 2015) — In verse, we would address it this way: July is the cruelest month. Gunshots out of the dead city, mixing mayoral incompetence and desire, stirring anger in citizens with dull indifference. That’s how we would begin the discussion of the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ——– 000 ——– EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is the YouTube link for Dan Valenti’s feature film, KENTUCKY FRIED PITTSFIELD … or … WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, COL. SANDERS? You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll will be in wonder! Click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzflpEb_zQQ . ——– 000 ——– (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 31-AUG. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ——– 000 ——– EDITOR’S NOTE: Tune into Channel 16, PC-TV at 7 p.m. tonight on Pittsfield cable for the showing of Dan Valenti‘s new film, Kentucky Fried Pittsfield … or … Where Have You Gone, Col. Sanders. The film premiered last week, but since that airing, THE PLANET […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015) — Politics is crime. That much we know from skunks at all levels of government. In Pittsfield, crime is also politics, especially during an election year (remember how Mayor Sara Hathaway lost to Jimmy Ruberto with one word, “abberant”?). File that […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015) — Regarding the alleged “discrepancy” in union-controlled funds at the Pittsfield Police Department locals: The mayor and police chief have placed an unnamed city officer on “administrative leave with pay” pending the results of an investigation into funds held by International […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 24-26, 2015) — THE PLANET was saddened to learn of the death of our friend and colleague, Brian Sullivan of The Berkshire Eagle. We first met Brian in 1971. We had wheels, a ’70 powder-blue VW Bug. He didn’t. That’s how […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ——– 000 ——– PROGRAM NOTE: Tune in Tonight, 7 p.m., Channel 16, Access Pittsfield, as PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION presents to world premiere of the film, Kentucky Fried Pittsfield … or … Where Have You Gone, Col. Sanders. The hour-long film shows Pittsfield as you’ve never seen it before. ——– 000 ——– […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY ——– 000 ——– PROGRAM NOTE: Tune in tomorrow, 7 p.m., Channel 16, Access Pittsfield, as PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION presents to world premiere of the film, Kentucky Fried Pittsfield … or … Where Have You Gone, Col. Sanders. The hour-long film shows Pittsfield as you’ve never seen it before. […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015) — Before we get to the main entree, let THE PLANET bring you this appetizer/update on the flooding of city hall that, according to the mayor, never happened. It rained Sunday night. Hard. So who was parked behind city hall […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 20, 2015) — The street’s talking: The killer(s) got the wrong guy. More mayhem is on the way. Is that the dirty secret authorities in Pittsfield don’t want citizens to know? Perhaps they think you’re too immature, too weak to handle the […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 17-19, 2015) — On THE PLANET‘s Weekend Edition, we open The Comment Line. That’s our readers’ chance to weigh in on any issue. The only “rule” is that they offer insight, intelligence, wit, wisdom, and perspicacity while avoiding lame insults, stupidity, […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015) — It’s in the can. No, not that way. And while we’re at it, leave Biddeford, Maine out of it. The granddad of a dear personal friend of THE PLANET‘s was born there. “In the can” is film talk for […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015) — Let’s see. If THE PLANET had sympathies for the Islamic State, and if we wanted to begin a terrorist cell, there are two things we wouldn’t do: We wouldn’t take our ordinary sounding American name and change it to Ali Al […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015) — THE PLANET told you before anyone else about how the bungled job of laying fiber-optic cable opened up a torrent of water that’s flooded the Pittsfield city hall basement. It’s been mythologized into this little musical ditty. It goes like […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 13, 2015) — We will save “Kumbaya” for the Bible thumpers, the progressives, and The Berkshire Eagle. THE PLANET gives it to you straight: the “Rally Against Violence” conducted this past Friday at The Christian Center won’t change a damned thing. The rally […]
