that 20th century American fascination with "alpine" Western Europe

Ski lodges! Hills being alive and teaching the world to sing! Fondue! Blonde girls with pigtails! "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium." Bond! James Bond!

Swiss Miss cocoa and Swiss Chalet restaurants and Swiss watches and Swiss bank accounts.

http://www.elverhoj.org/images/history/Solvang.jpg

http://www.posters57.com/images/categories/Disneyland1.jpg

yeah Disney was all over this

http://famgus.se/Postcards/Aviation/TWA/TWA-SwissMountainV.jpg

I think it's an interesting aesthetic and it's also interesting how demographic changes and the dying out of those previous generations of Western European immigrants have largely made this obsolete as a cultural mainstay, and also how people's definitions of "worldliness" have evolved along with those shifts.

I assume there was some degree of postwar longing for a more "innocent" Europe that wasn't bombed to shit/full of poisonous ideologies

and that was the big underlying theme of the sound of music, trying to keep austria uncorrupted.

Leavenworth, Washington!

http://americandrivingvacations.com/atc2015/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WA-Leavenworth.jpg

german-kitsch beer gardens:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/assets_c/2013/09/20130910-265550-redlion-sign-interior-50-thumb-610x406-351659.jpg

frankenmuth!

http://www.frankenmuth.org/

http://mullarkeydist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/St-Pauli-Girl.jpg
St Pauli Girl's Beers were first introduced into select US markets in 1965. National Distribution began in 1975.

Re: Solvang: to which extent does Denmark register as "alpine" (in the context of this thread of course)?

German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner) are Americans who are of German or Alsatian descent. They comprise about 50 million people,[1] making them the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, ahead of Irish Americans, African Americans and English Americans.[6][7][8][9][10][11] They comprise about 1⁄3 of the German diaspora in the world.[12][13][14]

... just sayin', like

"diaspora"

Re: Solvang: to which extent does Denmark register as "alpine" (in the context of this thread of course)?

haha yeah I guess that's my bad - similar fanciful architecture aesthetic primarily

Was this at its peak when Eisenhower was President?

Re: Solvang: to which extent does Denmark register as "alpine" (in the context of this thread of course)?

i'd say it's part of this in an auxiliary way -- it's not totally square with the image i have, but it's connected.

i love this aesthetic

Solvang is so weird in that it commits fully to this artificial/idealized aesthetic in the service of tourism - it's appeal is not that it makes American tourists recall the Alps as a specific mountain range in Europe, but that it evokes a generic "fairytale" Europe of thatched roofs, peaked caps (preferably with feathers), handlebar mustaches, liederhosen, butter cookies, girls w pigtails etc.

There are no liederhosen, butter cookies in Denmark either... I don't think I would like Solvang very much if I went there.

the music/spelling nerd in me likes the idea of pants that sing art songs

There are no liederhosen, butter cookies in Denmark either.

my point was that for American tourists of fake American villages, that doesn't matter

there should be butter cookies everywhere

And lederhosen

http://shop.solvangbakery.com/danish-butter-cookies-tub---world-famous-p111.aspx

Dirndls too.! Dirndls for all!

I have always been a sucker for this aesthetic and vibe. It's like the the fantasy flipside to the tiki Tahiti aesthetic. I think to Americans they represented different varieties of luxe exoticism -- carefree adventure, swank resorts, a life of ease in an excitingly different climate.

I used to have this game for my Apple IIe in high school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qap1skkJSBs

a pair of lederhosen just filled up with butter cookies.

I'm glad we're having this argument about the cultural accuracy of fucking Solvang though, good job guys

a pair of lederhosen just filled up with butter cookies.

― A Smedley Adoption (get bent), Thursday, June 25, 2015 4:43 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sublime

It's like the the fantasy flipside to the tiki Tahiti aesthetic. I think to Americans they represented different varieties of luxe exoticism

haha yes one vision evoking old world gentility, the other paternal colonialism

my grandma on my dad's side used to have tins of danish butter cookies around for when i came over. they were goooood.

i don't know what was specifically danish about them other than that the package said they were. whatever, london broil wasn't cut from british cows. *shrug*

once I ate llama at a swiss chalet restaurant in Bolivia

I was just in Leavenworth, WA. The travel brochure basically says "this place decided to adopt this look in the 70's based on the recommendation of some local businesses because the rail and logging industry died here and we needed tourist money." No real cultural heritage to to speak of. Interesting!

When I was in junior high my Latin teacher used to go on and on about how a dirndl was the most alluring garment a woman could ever wear. He was a weird dude.

Uhhh, is it OK to say that I don't find that all that weird?

well it's weird for a teacher to express that opinion to a class, yeah

Banter

Yeah, it wasn't the dirndl so much as the...enthusiasm.

Ha, get you.

fwiw I think this is probably a safe space to express your enthusiasm for dirndls

I'll try not to go overboard.

underrated posts i have loved in this thread

once I ate llama at a swiss chalet restaurant in Bolivia