By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY-TUESDAY, AUG. 4-5, 2014) — All of a sudden, 100 North Street has become a popular address. Let THE PLANET share one small example. For years, the governing board for owners at the Maplewood Condominiums across from St. Joseph’s High School would have their […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary EDITOR’S NOTE: THE PLANET is doing some “backstage” housekeeping this weekend related to IT. Comments sent may not at first appear. They will need individual moderation. Our webmaster has a list of approved names and a criteria list for new posters. Thus, if you don’t immediately see […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, JULY 30-31, 2014) — Mayor Dan Bianchi‘s proposal to move 40% of the city hall offices to 100 North Street “really sucks the big one,” as THE PLANET‘s resident theater critic Leonard Pinth Garnell might put it. THE PLANET has obtained more information […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, JULY 29-30, 2014) — THE PLANET smoked them out again! As The Empty Suit again finds out the hard way, there is no escape from a relentless reporter with truth on his side. The deal now in the works for 100 North Street hits […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY-TUESDAY, JULY 28-29, 2014) — THE PLANET has been asked about the recall process for an elected public official in Pittsfield, a city “led” by a part-time, no-show mayor up to his ass in the scandalous muck of Pittsfield’s swamp politics. The buzz about […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 25-27, 2014) — During our many years doing talk radio on WBRK, we got on intimate terms with 100 North St., the venerable and august First Aggie Bank building. It’s a fine structure, with its classical architecture and a size that […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary TONIGHT: EPISODE 11, PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION. ON THE SLATE: l’affaire gaetani, Doreen in Wonderland, The Generalissimo, and a cryptographic challenge! Tune in, tune on, and drop in beginning at 7 p.m. on Time Warner’s Access Pittsfield, channel 16. PV-TV: You won’t believe your eyes and ears. (FORTRESS […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014) — Things are getting hot, and THE PLANET is on the case. No, we don’t refer to the 90-degree weather. THE PLANET refers to Doreen Wade‘s charges of racism and water maverick Craig Gaetani‘s indictment of Mayor Dan Bianchi. Bianchi’s […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014) — THE PLANET had a couple commentators bring up the question of the total indebtedness in the city of Pittsfield. How much is the city in the hole? It’s a query with an answer startling enough to sober up Foster […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014) — There was delicious irony displayed a couple weeks ago when Northeast Public Radio WAMC ran its story (on air and website) on the Pittsfield mayor’s gag order that is trick-or-treating as a “press protocol,” “media policy,” or whatever tired […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 18-20, 2014) — Mid-July in The Berkshires, when the air is sweet, the brooks are babbling, and tourists of the more obnoxious sort think everyone else is deaf, dumb, and blind. You know the type. Just because they bought their daughter […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2014) — Tonight, be sure to catch PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION as we present our 10th Anniversary Show. PV-TV: You won’t believe your eyes and ears. And catch all of our past episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjP38gC2WQcYx71Cz0tjwoQ/feed ——– 000 ——– Tomorrow, THE […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014) — While our Right Honorable Good Friends last night plucked hangnails from the body politic and inserted bamboo shoots under the enamel, you can dismiss outright their significance. Opposition is enfeebled, reducing what little independence we see to tokenism, and […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2014) — Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah: The names probably don’t mean much to you, though you’ve “heard” of them. They are the three Israeli teenagers whose tragic deaths prompted Israeli settlers to retaliate with the capture, torture, and […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014) — THE PLANET has learned new information about the recent sewage spill into the Housatonic River and adjacent farm land at the water department treatment plant on Industrial Drive off of Holmes Road. Some of the information confirms what we […]
By DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 11-13, 2014) — Recently, THE PLANET has exposed a triad of Pittsfield’s tricky-dick dealings. Three examples include the filling of the Highway Department job, the careless leakage of raw sewage into the river and on farmland, and the mayor’s Capt. Queeg press […]
