If someone invited you to a two- hour stand-up routine by an ultra post-modern comedian, so sophisticated that he satirises himself, his audience and all the big names on the circuit, you might pass and ask to see a panto instead.
In 1987, Art Fry took advantage of this program to create the ultra profitable "Post-it Notes" product.
A decade ago, Mr. Murdoch was a fledgling singer and a veteran fan — a loser, perhaps — obsessed with the ultra-cultish post-punk band Felt.
Buildings that purport to be steel turn out to be straw; precise little machines for living in are dwarfed by Stalin's gothic skyscrapers and their ultra-kitsch post-Soviet imitations; advertising is ruthless and ubiquitous, covering every available surface.
PINK FLAMINGOS (John Waters, 1972) Apparently frivolous, definitely foul, Waters's ultra-camp, post-Warholian immersion in disgust, which stars the glorious transvestite star Divine, was a pointed De Sadean antidote to the self-importance that was creeping into American movies at the time.
(That video turns from an Aaliyah tribute into an ultra-patriotic post-9/11 anthem. The early Noughties were full of weird whiplash pathos like that).
So post Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, Governor's Ball, Snowball, Mad Decent, Escape to New York and a stint in Myknonos, I was expecting a whole lot of the same.
Alice Carter Glasshouse, by Charles Stross (Orbit, £6.99) Charles Stross has made a name for himself with a series of ultra high-concept, post-human novels that combine cutting-edge ideas and hi-tech vocabulary to brilliant effect.
Though liberal-tinted Snopes and ultra-liberal Huffington Post tried to downplay and justify the obscene expenditure - the numbers of fellow travelers involved and the numbers of planes and all the inexcusably extravagant "security measures" and the rest of the details for Obama's trip to Asia - I found that Reuters and other international news services confirmed the earlier stories.
"We wanted to break the stigma around this idea that it is inappropriate for children to be exposed to such 'lifestyles,'" Jeff Marras, aka Charmin Ultra, told The Huffington Post.
The space agency shared a wonderful new view of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis in stunning ultra high-definition footage posted online.
