I first heard about the virus in January, through Guo Jing’s diary on BBC Europe. I am a teacher, and some mornings I sit in the parking lot for a few minutes, to listen to the radio and drink coffee and breathe. I rub my upper arms and pop my neck like I’m about to walk onto a basketball court. In her diary, Guo Jing mentions buying salted eggs. She doesn’t like them, but after the lockdown ends, she can give them to her friends. That was the only part of the diary that scared me. I trust science, I have weird faith in chaos, I am reasonably okay on my own, and because I am no longer surprised by the foundational inequities in my country, I am no longer afraid of them either. I do worry about my friends and family a lot. When I heard her talking about the eggs, my brain glitched to a place where I was the only person left (which is not supremacy, it’s a helplessness), unable to leave my apartment and eating only salted eggs. I sat there, in my car and in my mind. Then told myself this would never happen, and so I went inside to work.

On a gray overcast afternoon in Wicker Park, a line snakes through the side streets. I followed it, with my roommate, past the park, under the L. We found the start at Honore and Milwaukee, across the street from the old Bom Bolla spot. Some folks grouped together in clusters while others stayed the recommended 6 feet apart. Some brought their dogs, some brought their family, their children. Everyone came to partake in the Lee Initiative’s Restaurant Workers Relief Program.

LIFE BEFORE (No. 1) is an hour-long soundbath—an audio-collage compiling voice memos, field recordings, reflections, and expressions of life before social distance and self-isolation.

As part of the Quarantine Times, a new music program, Soothing Sounds, will premier on Lumpen Radio at 9 am every Tuesday. Curated by the fine folks at UNCANNEDmusic, this special hour-long series aims to present calming tones for our stressed-out times.

A number of media sources and organizations are keeping track of virtual events and letting us know which Chicago or National events are postponed or flat out cancelled. This is a list of some notable sources and articles that have caught our collective eyes:

We want to know: How are you responding to the pandemic?

We’re creating a collective audio archive of worries / hopes / discoveries / actions / inactions during these strange times.

Our first batch of calls are in! Take a listen to hear from artists, parents, neighbors and strangers. It’s an audio meditation on a new normal.