Cacti

Billy Nomates’s eponymous first album (2020) and subsequent EP, Emergency Telephone (2021), introduced a singular new talent. Based in Bristol and fiercely independent, this caustic solo singer-songwriter, born Tor Maries, came at most subjects – from positivity to high heels to charity muggers – from oblique angles, her sometimes sung, often spoken delivery full of original phrasing.Best described as a punk with a keyboard and tunes to burn, Nomates has dug even deeper for Cacti, her songwriting broadening its reach. Her…

A saguaro in the Sonoran desert near Apache Junction, AZ. Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)One of the Southwest’s most familiar plants may be in deep trouble. The towering, multi-armed saguaro cactus, which is found only in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, California, and parts of Mexico, has faced increasing instability as climate change alters its natural habitat through droughts and wildfires. The cacti can live well over a century and areculturally important to the tribal nations native to the Sonoran, as well as…