How I got to be this hip

the long version

The finest pieces by Barry Farrell are drawn together for the first time in this wise, funny, and moving collection. From first-person musings to scathing social commentary, Farrell chronicled the country's changing cultural tides from the 1960s through the '80s - and articulated his views with unparalleled precision and insight. Woodstock, the Manson murders, Allen Ginsberg's tender raging, Patty Hearst's kidnapping and trial, Gary Gilmore's execution/suicide, the LAPD's laughable botching of the Hillside Strangler case. Farrell somehow found his way to the center of all these media events, quickly separated the heroes from the charlatans, and went home to out-write every reporter on the scene.