On Tuesday night, David Yassky lost his bid to be the city's next comptroller a job that, according to Tom Robbins in the Village Voice, he is "tailor-made to be."

So, after two terms as City Council member for the 33rd district, what does this mean for Yassky's future? Yassky was at a similar crossroads when he lost his bid for the congressional seat now held by Yvette Clarke.

At the end of December, he'll be out of a job as he will no longer be representing a district that includes Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Williamsburg, Navy Yard and Greenpoint.

Many think it was his vote to eliminate term limits that cost him the election. 

On election night he told the Brooklyn Paper: “For the rest of the year, I intend to focus on completing my
service to the district. In the short term, I’m going to get a few good night’s sleep. Then I’ll
think about my future.”

Indeed, it was a tough race with a very low voter turnout in the primary and the run-off on September 29th. While Yassky had endorsements from all the major NCY newspapers, including the New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post and the Brooklyn Paper and Senator Chuck Schumer's support, his opponent, John Liu, had organized labor on his side and a lot of big endorsements as well. 

Liu won with  127,000
votes to Yassky’s 101,000. Yassky said in his concession speech on Tuesday night that he is sure that John Liu will do a good job as City Comptroller.

It's hard to choose so do them both if you can. This year, the Red Hook International Film Festival is dedicated to Robert Guskind (1958-2009) of Gowanus Lounge and there will be showing a short video tribute to Guskind created by Blue Barn Pictures. I happen to love that video.

Coney Island Film Festival at Sideshows by the Seashore [1208 Surf Ave.
at W. 12th Street, (718) 372 5159]. Oct. 2–4. Prices vary. For schedule
and details, visit www.coneyislandfilmfestival.com;

 Red Hook International Film Festival at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists
Screening Room [499 Van Brunt St. south of Reed Street, (718)
596-2506]. Oct. 3–4. For full schedule, visit www.redhookfilmfest.com.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Brooklynites will finally get a chance to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Manhattan Bridge. 

This weekend, there will be tours, a parade, lectures and fireworks on Sunday. Says the Brooklyn Paper:

It's a party fit for a bridge that has never gotten its due, despite being
superior to the Brooklyn Bridge in almost every important way:

• The Manny B carries more people every day than any bridge in the
city — even more than the George Washington — thanks to its subway
lines. About 400,000 people cross the span every day.

• And best of all, it taught generations of engineers what not to do when building a bridge.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) curated by Martha Southgate with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. 

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story.
He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue
Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He
teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives
near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine.
He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a
United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast
Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended
Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His
essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in
publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa
Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie
Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current
Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two
children. Signifying Nothing is his
first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels,
most recently Third Girl from the Left
which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006.
It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the
American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation
for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell
Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf
Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book
Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best
African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have
appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She
also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and
Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is
working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can
visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the fab schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.