The Just Barelys - "Ok Yeah Ok". Shortiola's teachers don't understand her. Her knowledge seems to jam up: weeks of hard work and A-grades, then suddenly it's flunk flunk flunk, these dumbbrained numbbrained answers, cataclysmic quizzes. And then abruptly she's free, she's back, neurons firing as they should, lessons learned. It's as if something gets blocked, Mr Hendricks tells her parents. Like there's a sudden freeze, suggests Ms Khan, and it takes a while for the river to get moving again. The teachers don't ask Shortiola's parents the question they most want to know the answer to, the question of Shortiola's name. She is tall and blonde, statuesque on her skateboard, skipping the curb. At lunch she sits on the steps, knees up to her nose, tossing jokes and laugh-snorting. Looking out into blue sky, dreaming of moving to a smaller town, a village where she's the only cheerleader at a tiny school, hangs out with the QB, falls in love while they stream Fellini on Youtube. Later she'll learn to play drums, a little guitar. [buy or download the Just Barelys very charming, pop-&-herkyjerk]

Vijay Iyer Trio - "The Star of a Story". The heart of this song, the part where I raise my eyebrows and make my mouth a line, comes in the second half. It is as if this light little party has become serious: the dinner-party filigree is still filigree, still spry and conversational, but the stakes are there. The stakes have come into the room. We must all try to do the things we love, to make the world a better place, to be kind to others. And we will all die. We will all die. The man in the bowtie does not get up from the piano. Raise your glass whenever you're ready. ["The Star of a Story" is originally by Heatwave / listen to all of Accelerando / buy]

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