Plenty to keep us busy once the election is over

Even if you're a political junkie, you're probably looking forward to the election being over Tuesday -- or Wednesday or even later, if a replay of the 2000 election is in the offing as some pundits predict.

But if you're worried about what will keep you "entertained" once the election is over, you shouldn't be. As we move into the winter months, there is no shortage of ways to enjoy the arts, and you can get personally involved with most of them.

As an example of McCook's thriving arts community, we enjoyed a recreation of an old-time Bob Hope radio show Sunday afternoon, complete with visits by Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante and many others. The venue was the historic Fox Theatre, in the midst of a major remodeling and beautification project.

The Fox will be busy again during the holiday season, with Christmas programs and the First Night New Year's celebration keeping its all-volunteer staff hopping. A stage painting project will take three weeks this winter, chairman Charles Coleman said Sunday, but we know plenty of other activities will be booked come spring.

But the Fox isn't the only venue in town; Memorial Auditorium with the new seats installed a few years ago, the new McCook Community College Events Center and the Weeth black-box theater and the McCook High School auditorium are all custom-made for community events.

During the summer, the newly refurbished Norris Park Band Shell is a great place for McCook National Bank's Hot Summer Nights performances, Heritage Days events and a lot of other entertainment.

Of course, the best of venues will go to waste without performers to make use of it, and there is no shortage of those, either. We owe much to the Southwest Nebraska Community Theater Association, as well as McCook High School and McCook Community College theater departments for putting on productions that are memorable both for the audience and the actors -- young and old -- who spend hours learning their lines and songs.

The visual arts are alive and well in McCook, with shows in constant circulation at the Wrightstone Fine Arts building on the MCC campus and at the McCook Art Guild's downtown studios, where the guild offers events like the Canvas Plus art workshop on Tuesday night.

Also on Tuesday night, the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival's First Tuesday will share political stories at the Bieroc Cafe.

But those examples are only the tip of the iceberg. Young dancers can train at Robin's School of Dance or the Spotlight Studio, and the college, public and parochial schools and churches are steady sources of talented performers of all types.

McCook is far from the only source of live entertainment, of course, with many community productions each year, and facilities like Oberlin's Gateway Civic Center another busy venue.

So don't despair, political junkies. Once the election is over, there's plenty of live entertainment available to keep us busy in the coming months. Best of all, it's live, personal and not delivered through an electronic screen.