4 Unusual Online Clubs that You Can Start with Your Friends During the Pandemic
What will be your favorite way to spend time with your friends this summer?
I know that we are coming to the tail end of the pandemic, and things are starting to return to semi-normal in a lot of places, so this article is somewhat overdue, but over the last few months, I have had some ideas about potential clubs that are just a little different from your run-of-the-mill book or debate club, and these can all bring some novelty to the monotony of this second COVID-19 summer.
All of these ideas are very well suited for online get-togethers, and all you really need is an internet connection!
So try out some of these or make up your own, but I would suggest that, whatever you do, aim for something a little unusual for these *unusual times* (sorry, I am also sick and tired of hearing that phrase, but it went so well with the theme!).
The Notion Imaginary Lands Club
If you have not yet heard of Notion — the groundbreaking productivity app that is all the rage right now — then you need to get on that pronto. Even if you end up deciding that it is not the right tool for you or your needs, you should still give it a chance, especially since the main features are all FREE.
Here are a few of my favorite videos to get you started with the app (it is definitely a steep learning curve, but you need to have the basics down to be able to get more creative):
Of course, this club that I have invented is not about getting all productive with your friends, because although having your bleep together is a blast and a half, most modern small talk calls for more information on how your life is falling apart and responsibilities are building up, and less information on how calm and collected you are.
Instead, this club utilizes Notion’s best features to create portals to a world of your (and your friends’) creations! The main idea is to collectively create a Notion account using a group email — this works great because Notion now includes multiple-account functionality, which means that this “group account” will not stop you from creating your own personal one if you start to fall in love with this app like I sure have.
The idea was inspired by Umberto Eco’s bewitching work, The Book of Legendary Lands, which is another “erudite divertissement” from the author’s series of coffee table books. As I read, I felt that Notion could easily act as a portal to a new world of my imagination (bear with me).
I will make another post going into my own Notion creations, which I would like to make public, but until then, the gist of this club is to put together pages, and tables, and videos, and playlists, and images, and more that you think belong, or describe, or form your new fantasy land. Go wild with your creativity!
Ugly Renaissance Club
The name derives from a book: The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty by Alexander Lee. Technically, this concept could be applied to all of history, or a particular era that interests your group of friends, but I am most fascinated by the Renaissance, and this club name works beautifully as a juxtaposition of the concept of ugliness and a time in history that is lauded for its focus on beauty.
The main purpose of this club is to spend some time exploring the darker or raunchier side of history, to find rabbit holes of depravity that lead to webs of corruption. I promise that you will emerge from your investigations with a newfound respect AND disrespect for the folks that came before us, whether it is the so-called “Greats” that you are focusing on, or the names that are almost lost to time, or both!
If you find historical figures to be stuck-up bores, this collaborative deep-dive will excite you and change your view on life. On the other hand, if you think of certain figures as *wholly holy* (AKA completely without fault), then it will surely be a shock to your system.
Your discoveries can be discussed over Zoom after some individual exploration, or it could even evolve into a sort of film or book club that focuses on learning about the faults of historical figures.
SUGGESTION: It might be fun to write some limericks or other types of small rhymes covering the more crazy events that happened, and share them over Zoom!
The Alchemy Club
Perhaps you want to fully embrace the isolation that has been part of the package deal of COVID-19, while still socializing to the best of your ability in the process. In that case, say no more. Alchemy (or probably more appropriately, its less sexy cousin chemistry) will allow you to bring forth the spirits of those “philosophers” of old who would experiment to learn more about the world that they lived in while remaining almost completely excluded from that same world by spending all their time tinkering in their towers and laboratories. If that feels like a current mood, give your inner alchemist a voice by investing in a few pieces of lab equipment and meeting online with friends to do live experiments! Think of it like a “Chill with Me” that could make your friend group embody the Dr. Frankenstein aesthetic (all in safety, of course).
You might prefer to go all in and do these experiments individually instead, and later share your findings and sudden revelations about the nature of reality.
It can also be very entertaining to peruse a tome or two on natural philosophy from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to get a real laugh out of what was once thought, and to be reminded that a lot of what we know about reality might in fact be laughable in due course.
For truly great do-it-yourself experiments, I would suggest The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments by Robert Brent. This one has a free download! It will be especially exciting to use this book as a group because it was banned by the U.S. government and taken out of public libraries on the grounds that the projects were too dangerous for the intended young audience! You will feel like a real alchemist with the additional taboo backstory that comes with this collection.
Urpflanze Society
It might take a while to nail the pronunciation if you don’t know German, but that is where the difficulty ends and the fun begins! “Urpflanze” is the name that famous polymath Goethe gave his “Archetypal Plant”, which he believed to be the single basic model of a plant upon which all plants were built. He believed that it must exist, since man could discern plants from non-plants, which meant to him that there must be an inherent structure that exists in all plants.
“I am beginning to grow aware of the essential form with which, as it were, Nature always plays, and from which she produces her great variety. Had I the time in this brief span of life I am confident I could extend it to all the realms of Nature — the whole realm.” [from Goethe’s letter to Charlotte von Stein, 1786]
While the “Urpflanze Society” is not in search of this basic model, as Goethe’s original hypothesis faded into obscurity in time, it carries on the legacy of that poetic view of the natural world. It takes its inspiration from the way that Goethe easily blurred the lines between observations in the physical world and ideas seen so clearly in his mind’s eye that they almost seemed to exist in life.
Here is the idea: Gather all of your friends on a video call every once in a while, each coming prepared with an imaginary plant that could conceivably exist, but which they draw from imagination instead of memory. At the meeting, you should swap your creations, Secret Santa style, and then each go off to search online plant identification reference guides to find a plant that bears an uncanny resemblance to the picture that he or she has been charged with. The one who finds the strongest likeness wins, and ideally proves that much of life is but a mirror of the imagination.
These were just some fun clubs that came to my mind, and I hope that you got some useful ideas from these suggestions, but if you did not feel particularly drawn to any, perhaps it will nevertheless push you to come up with your own creations. Good luck and have some fun online over the summer break!
