Park Playhouse, Albany’s free theater series that takes place in Washington Park, announced Wednesday that for it’s upcoming season that “Cabaret,” not the previously advertised “Legally Blonde,” will be produced for the company’s twenty-fourth season.

“Legally Blonde is a show that Park Playhouse may do someday,” said Owen M. Smith, the producing artistic director of Park Playhouse. Smith, who has been head of the venerable summer theater program for three years, expressed confidence in the change from the movie-turned-musical “Legally Blonde” to “Cabaret.”

“Our funding structure has changed and we’ve taken a look at the new budget structure. Legally Blonde is a lesser known title and a more expensive production and this is not the first time we’ve changed shows,” said Smith.

“(Cabaret) is a better fit for our budget and people have wanted to see Cabaret for years.”

Park Playhouse, which began in 1989 as part of a municipal arts program and has evolved into its own non-profit organization, is still in a revival phase since Smith took over in 2010. Under Smith’s tenure, Park Playhouse has produced critically-acclaimed productions of “Annie Get Your Gun” and “The Producers.”

“We all felt good about the switch,” Smith continued.

‘Cabaret,’ which was written by Kander and Ebb and first performed in 1966, is set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power. The show focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.

“I think Cabaret is a story that needs to be told and we will be doing it in a very different than what people have seen before.”

Mistakes, mistakes don’t turn the water back on.

According to a report first published by the Albany Business Review, the University at Albany is seeking new bids for contractors to rehabilitate the water tower and fountain on its uptown campus in response to a subcontractor of Latham-based Bunkoff General Contractors erred on an estimate for work of approximately $1.2 to $1.5 million.

The bid that the subcontractor was involved with kept the amount below the $15 million threshold when the subcontractor discovered the mistake.

The entire project, estimated around $15 million, is set to be complete by 2014.

The SUNY Construction Fund, who is managing the bids for the project, decided to re-open the request process in light of the mistake. The new bid is now due on February 14, with provisions to keep the project within line cost-wise and minimize distractions on the Edward Durell Stone-designed campus.

A small water fountain not located in the main area was separated out as an alternate bid, which means the university could decline to do that portion of the project depending on the cost.

Some of the criticism over the project stems from the university’s 2010 plan to cut a number of humanities programs while embarking on a robust list of construction projects that include building a new School of Business building, rehabbing dormitories, and renovating the Campus Center.

Apple has officially become the world’s top computer maker, according to research firm Canalys, beating longtime leader Hewlett-Packard.

Canalys included tablet PCs in their calculation, such as Apple’s iPad. The global PC market grew by 16 percent to a total of 120 million computers in the final quarter of 2011.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple sold 20.6 million units, compared to HP’s 15.3 million units in the last quarter. Lenovo placed third, selling 13.5 million. Dell and Acer rounded out the top five, with 11.9 million and 11.2 million sold respectively.

The calculation by Canalys could be used by other analyst firms such as Gartner to calculate the total amount of computers sold and used across the world. With more users switching from desktop/laptop-based platforms to a tablet, Apple could in fact be the mainstream maker it has long sought to become.

As the New Jersey Nets prepare to make their move to Brooklyn from New Jersey, using the slogan, “Jersey Strong, Brooklyn Ready,” another major league team is preparing to possibly make a move from “Strong” Island to the borough of Kings.

The New York Islanders announced they will play the first National Hockey League game at Barclays Center, the new multi-million arena in Downtown Brooklyn, on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. Ironically, they will play the New Jersey Devils, who moved from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. to their own arena in Newark, the Prudential Center. The game will also mark the first ever hockey game played in Brooklyn.

“We’re extremely excited to play the first NHL game in the new, state-of-the-art Barclays Center,” Islanders General Manager Garth Snow said in a statement. “We already have some of the most passionate fans in the league supporting our young team, and we are looking forward to expanding our base into Brooklyn.”

Speculation arising over the Islanders relocation has been fierce since Long Island voters rejected a $400 million bond plan to finance a replacement to Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. With Barclays Center being able to handle an NHL-regulation ice rink, a move to Brooklyn may be easier for the Islanders than building a new arena or rehabbing the coliseum.

The arena will officially open days earlier, as Jay-Z will play a series of concerts.

“We feel Brooklyn is an untapped hockey market that offers the Islanders with an exciting opportunity to grow its fan base,” Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark said. “Barclays Center will also afford current Islander fans with great accessibility, as the Long Island Rail Road and nine subway lines will come directly to the arena at the Atlantic Terminal transit hub.”

The on sale date has yet to be announced.

It was a snow-on/snow-off mix on Monday morning as Albany Parking Authority workers began installing the new parking meter machines along Washington Avenue in Albany, between the New York State Capitol and the State Education building.

The machines, installed as part of a larger effort to eliminate metered parking across the City of Albany, allow for credit cards to be used as well. Criticism over the machines stem from the very thing the meters had initially disavowed, which was that downtown workers would stay in prime parking spots near government or office buildings for the entire day, not allowing for visitors to park.

Meter parking still exists along Madison Avenue in Pine Hills and in various mini-sections in Albany.

The act may be up for some Albany live performance venues, as the city seeks to impose a new fee for establishments that have live music on their premises.

Currently, the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) handles requests to be listed as a “nightclub” or an establishment that allows live music. Mayor Gerald D. Jennings wants this to be changed to having a system of approvals by various departmental heads and the city clerk in order for an establishment to have performances.

The proposal license fee would be from $300 to $900, depending on the size of the establishment.

Recent decisions by BZA – including the revocation of the nightclub permit for South End club Simply Fish and Jazz and the rejection of a permit by Dominick Karl on behalf of Sneaky Pete’s – have come under more scrumptious light.

The Common Council’s Planning, Economic Development, and Land Use Committee, chaired by Daniel Herring (D-13th Ward), will vote on the ordinance tonight at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall before it reaches a chamber vote this month.

With the advent of smart phones and digital cameras taking precious market share away from traditional photo manufacturers, Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) found itself on the wrong side of history Thursday morning as the Rochester, N.Y.-based company filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Kodak, founded by George Eastman in 1892, has seen rampant competition from not only Japanese camera makers such as Canon, Sony, and Fujifilm, but also from smart phone makers such as Research In Motion (RIM – “Blackberry”), Apple, and Samsung.

Only nine years ago, Kodak was in a relatively strong position, employing nearly 70,000. Today, the workforce for Kodak stands at just under 20,000, part of a series of efforts to streamline and make Kodak more profitable. The company saw it’s last profitable year in 2007. As part of the bankruptcy filing, Kodak was able to acquire a $950 million line of credit from Citigroup which will allow the company to continue operations through 2013, when the bankruptcy is expected to be complete.

Kodak’s decline mirrors the decline of it’s hometown, Rochester. Even as the IRS has declared Rochester as the second largest economy in New York State recently, the Flour City has seen it’s manufacturing core diminish greatly from 50 years ago. In addition to Kodak, Rochester was the start point for both Bausch & Lomb and Xerox, thus earning the title of the World’s Image Center.

Xerox moved its headquarters to Norwalk, Conn., mimicking a move by then-Schenectady-based General Electric to Fairfield, Conn. Bausch & Lomb continues to have it’s primary operations out of Rochester.

Kodak had been a staple of American innovation and life for the past 100 years. In 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong used a Kodak camera to take photos of the surface of the Moon. In 1975, the company developed its first digital camera, which lingered in development and revisions as competitors created smaller, smarter cameras to compete. By the 2000s, the damage had been done, thus pushing Kodak to the point where it is today.

Kodak has some options to resurrect itself, including the sale of over 1,000 photo-related patents. However, the company’s legacy costs relating to pensions will need to be addressed in order to get the company on solid ground.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg took to his social network Wednesday afternoon, announcing his opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

“The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet’s development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet,” said Zuckerberg in a post.

Facebook currently has over 800 million users and according to the company’s policy division, “the bills contain overly broad definitions and create a new private cause of action against companies on the basis of those expansive definitions, which could seriously hamper the innovation, growth, and investment in new companies that have been the hallmarks of the Internet. In addition, we are concerned about provisions in the bills that could chill free expression or weaken the Internet’s architecture.”

“The world today needs political leaders who are pro-internet. We have been working with many of these folks for months on better alternatives to these current proposals. I encourage you to learn more about these issues and tell your congressmen that you want them to be pro-internet,” Zuckerberg continued.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo delivered his second budget address of his administration earlier on Tuesday afternoon, aiming to continue the fiscal austerity measures from FY 2011 and with the goal to close the $3.5 billion gap in the New York State budget.

Part of Cuomo’s budget plan is to expand last year’s NY SUNY 2020 to the rest of the SUNY system – approximately 30 university colleges and 30 community colleges, which met immediate opposition from the joint effort of Save Our SUNY (SOS) and its statewide affiliate New York Students Rising (NYSR) – which are both committed to standing up for students’ rights.

“Years of deep and painful budget cuts cannot be erased by a maintenance of the status quo, minor budgetary increases, or partial support. Financial support to SUNY and CUNY has steadily decreased during the Cuomo administration. In his 2011-2012 Executive Budget, Governor Cuomo suggested a ten percent cut in operating aid to community colleges, SUNY, and CUNY meaning that over the last 4 years Public Higher Education has been cut by over 30%. What New York’s Higher Education system needs is a full restoration of funding for both SUNY and CUNY and a commitment to maintain such funding levels – not a Governor who views our Universities and Colleges as commodities,” said the group in a release.

“Currently, Cuomo has proved to be a successful lobbyist for Wall Street, not students. If Cuomo would like to be a lobbyist for students he can start by closing corporate loopholes so New York State has the revenue to support all Public Education. Students need a lobbyist who is willing to stand up to Wall Street to ensure our institutions of Higher Education have the funding they need to provide an affordable, accessible education to all.”

SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher had a different reaction to the budget address, citing that the governor has finally made a financial commitment to the system.

“Governor Cuomo has once again proven to be SUNY’s champion. He has clearly made the improvement of our state’s education system a top priority for 2012-13, and I applaud him for doing so in what continues to be a difficult economic climate,” said Zimpher.

“By presenting an executive budget that, for the first time in recent memory, holds the line on state funding for SUNY, Governor Cuomo has kept his promise to position the state university as a world-class leader in higher education that will help to create jobs and move the dial on our state’s economic revitalization.”

The governor’s address also had an impact on the city of Albany, as the governor agreed to lay out nearly $7 million for PILOT payments for the Empire State Plaza and the re authorization of $63 million for the Albany Convention Center project.

If you were trying to find quick information this morning about a certain public figure or event, you may have hit a roadblock.

Wikipedia, along with a number of other sites, have joined the opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which opponents claim will have long term negative effects on the internet. Wikipedia will be offline for 24 hours.

“For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia,” said the web site.

“In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive. Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet,” Wikipedia continued.