This news makes me off-the-charts happy.

I was born in Schenectady, but my family moved to Albany when I was 5-years-old. I spent most of my youth and young adulthood in Albany. I love the history of the city I grew up in and thus, I love the Madison Theatre, formally known as the Norma Jean Madison Theatre.

That’s how I knew it, the Norma Jean Madison Theatre.

The first movie I ever saw in a theatre was Terminator 2. My parents took my brother and I. I was 9-years-old.

It was so.fucking.hot. I remember sweat dripping down the side of my face.

I didn’t care.

We didn’t have a lot and to see a movie on the big screen was a huge deal. A BIIIIG deal.

Later on, my brother and I and our friend Jerry saw many…many a movie at the Madison Theatre. We would walk there from our house on Ormond St. Some of my fondest memories are those walks with my brother and Jerry.

So, needless to say, seeing news that the theatre that brought me so many incredible childhood memories is reopening brought a huge smile to my face.

I had already planned on taking my oldest to see the new Star Wars movie, with this news, we just might be seeing it at the movie theatre of my youth.