Twain House Weekend; Steampunk and Ghost Tours

Image courtesy of Twain House

It's shaping up to be a huge weekend for our neighbors at the Mark Twain House. Fresh off the success of "Tapping into Twain" a couple weeks ago, the folks at the Twain House continue to bring exciting events to the neighborhood. First every Friday and Saturday during October the Twain House gives Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours of the possibly haunted house. Sad City will be joining WCCC's Craig The Porn Star on the tour this Friday evening. Now we at Sad City don't exactly believe in ghosts (to be fair we don't particularly believe in anything) but we will chug a few Ecto Coolers, strap on our proton packs and go along for the tour.


While we our on our Graveyard Ghosts tour another event will be taking place at the same time, the Steampunk Halloween Masquerade Ball. At only $10 this event seems like a steal. The Twain House website tells us there will be a costume contest and being a proper masquerade ball, all attendees should wear masks. Sounds pretty cool to us, but what exactly is this "steampunk?"


Well someone over art the Twain House obviously has heard this question before. From the Facebook event page:


"What's Steampunk, you ask? It's a genre that combines Victorian technology and science fiction, pioneered by Twain and Jules Verne, and enjoying a resurgence today. Picture spaceships running on steam, studded with bolts, with ornate, Victorian valves and decor; other odd devices for transportation, such as the walking vehicles the Martians used in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Vernean submarines and balloons; costumes that combine the Age of Mark Twain with the Age of Captain Kirk - in short, an odd bonding of the historical past with a science-fiction future."


Hmmm. So steampunk is something like Victorian era people on absinthe meets Star Wars meets Yellow Submarine? And you though these Victorians were purely about the orgies! 


Sounds pretty cool to us. No doubt there will be an awesome array of interesting costumes to gawk at. Bonus: you will be wearing a mask so no one will even know you are gawking at them! (see: sunglasses, beach)


Sounds like a pretty wild weekend at the Twain House. Check out the web site here or give that little used function on your pocket computer some work and call them at 860-280-3130.


(Ed. Note: Sad City will not be wearing costumes. It's all we can do to get dressed in normal clothes in the morning.)