For his Zócalo Sketchbook, Verdin bridges the visual and sonic to document his impressions of the natural world on vintage audio cassette tapes. Capturing the sounds of his local environment in 30 second bursts—available to you by clicking on the play buttons below—the illustrations themselves recreate the iconic look of some of the audio tapes that first led Verdin to making music and manipulating sound in his youth.

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For our November Sketchbook, Strauss takes us on a retro-fabulous bird migration. As in all modern travel, there are rules and regulations. In this case, each flock of birds is allowed one item of luggage to be stored in the backseat (or strapped to the roof) of a vintage car classified as “bitchin” or better. To honor Zócalo’s Los Angeles home base, all birds she features are either native to California or spend a significant amount of time here on their migration. See if you can identify the blue-gray gnatcatcher, the western tanager, the black-bellied plover, the streak-backed oriole, and the Bohemian waxwing.

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