As an ex-Virginian visiting the state last month, I found the build-up to yesterday’s gubernatorial election slightly pulse-pounding. The state’s sitting governor, Tim Kaine, was a breath of a fresh air compared to the genteel old-boy-network govs like Chuck Robb we had growing up. Kaine, who had a career in fair housing law, benefited from Bush’s declining popularity and took the state house. But yesterday, things swung back to the right in Virginia where family-values conservative Bob McDonnell won. Just now I googled some background on McD to find out, physically shuddering, that we went to the same university, and worse, he attended my arch-rival high school, Bishop Ireton! As an occasional visitor to Virginia, I’ll only comment on one aspect of McDonnell’s campaign—his plans for addressing sprawl and traffic congestion in Northern Virginia. From what I read, and I find this telling, McDonnell’s feeble answer is more HOV lanes on the highways while his defeated opponent Creigh Deeds envisioned light rail and more mass transit and faced up to the fact that taxes might have to pay for such investment. Virginians are sensitive to the tax issue, evidently. So Virginians may think they are voting for conservative stability but what they really got was a guy who hasn’t a clue how to address the present—much less the future—but knows not to mention taxes, only bonds where fiscal matters are concerned. Well, Virginia, you got your bond-issuing social conservative. Enjoy every minute of that commuter traffic.

Here are five things to do.

Phenomenal Handclap Band, Photo: FotonovaNYC/AlexSolmssen

NIGHTLIFE - Simian Mobile Disco + Phenomenal Handclap Band
There are few electronic artists that can shake a stick at Simian Mobile Disco’s live shows. Mixing a seizure-inducing lights show with its in-yer-face indie techno productions, the duo shames any DJ who considers standing on stage with a MacBook a “live” show. As an added bonus, funky dance troupe Phenomenal Handclap Band opens. If you haven’t worn yourself out upstairs at Metro, head down to the basement for an SMD DJ set alongside JDH, Dave P and the Chicago Workgroup afterwards. Metro + Smart Bar. 9pm; $25, includes admission to both shows.

THEATER - Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks’s follow-up to the smash-hit The Producers got a lukewarm reception in its lavish New York production. Can a retooled version do better on the road? Original Broadway stars Roger Bart and Shuler Hensley must think so, since they’re on the road with it. We’ll find out tonight. Cadillac Palace Theatre, 7:30pm, $30–$95.

MUSIC - Ghostface Killah
The Wu-Tang MC’s latest, Ghostdini: Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City, squarely focuses on lovelorn R&B, but it’s in no way soft. House of Blues, 9pm, $23, 17 and older.

FILM - An Education
An Education may not be perfect (we have issues with the ending), but it’s worth seeing just for Carey Mulligan’s star-making turn as a teenager in early 1960s London who experiences a taste of freedom by dating an older man. Some actors just have that magic “it,” and Mulligan is one. See Listings.

ART & DESIGN - “Site-Unspecific”
Up-and-coming sculptor Heather Mekkelson is among the artists in this site-oriented show opening tonight.
O’Connor Art Gallery, Dominican University, 7900 W Division St, River Forest. 4–8pm. FREE!