Last spring the unsolicited magazine gods began mailing me free monthly copies of Ranch & Coast, "San Diego's Luxury Lifestyle Magazine."

For persons outside the target demographic, R&C makes for fierce entertainment: it's glossy, beautifully designed, and filled with ads and articles broadcasting the obsessions of the nouveau riche: real estate, travel, fine dining, kids, fashion, fast cars, and above all, all possible means -- whether surgical, physical, or spiritual -- of attempting to regain one's lost youth.

In short: a good read, with the occasional delicious tilt into sublime moments of absurdist horror.

After receiving a few issues I decided to reciprocate the publisher's generosity by deriving simple (i.e., uni- or dual-element) digital collages from the pages of each issue, and emailing them to the R&C editor. Artwork as payment: a time-honored barter.

Some of the less easily identifiable collage sources include a Corvette review, a high-tech leakproof silicone breast implant, a blonde bouffant hairdo with dark roots, a computer-spell-checked article showcasing a fifteen-acre ranch estate, a New Year's-in-Rio panorama, Breakfast With Shamu, and an article on teeth-whitening.