Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen has been documenting his travels during Coachella as a part of a recurring series for Rolling Stone. The final installment, posted today following the conclusion of the festival and reveals his opinion on modern music as well as some of the people he encountered on his trip including comedian Chelsea Handler.

Aside from a couple members of his family and myself, Irving had invited another of his clients on the Coachella plane, the bright, amped-up comic, Chelsea Handler, who was soon in charge of. . .well, whatever there was to be in charge of: conversation, food, drinks, etc. She’s also from Jersey, and, as she admitted, “pretty Jew-y.” She seemed to be genuinely excited about the trip. She had her roommate with her, Shelly, her opposite, a demure, sensible-seeming tax lawyer.

Fagen then dug into the music he encountered on his trip. “Most of the music I heard was in the c. 1965 Dylanesque mode, minus genius or anything like that,” he said. “I’ve been hearing this stuff for more than a half-century and it’s getting pretty dreary. Jeez, that’s how I started out, more of less. I’m sure some of these guys don’t even know they’re doing early Bob.”

He went on to praise hip-hop, which he says “is tough for me to listen to” for having a “few genuine eccentrics with street energy and something to say.” Fagen added, “But wouldn’t it be great to hear something as lively as, like, George Clinton, or Ian Dury and the Blockheads’ There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards?”

The entry closes with the following:

Maybe something awesome will turn up. Or not. As the Empire declines, so does culture, literacy, and almost everything else. Ironically, high technology, once thought to be the savior of civilization, has become our Alaric the First, our barbarian invasion. Increasingly, it looks like life in the future will be nasty, brutish and long.

Sorry. Fuck it. I’m in a beach hotel in La Jolla, where Raymond Chandler used to live, write and drink, so I’m feeling kind of hard-boiled. Two nights at Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn and then I’m home on a break until the end of June. Thanks to Rolling Stone for the pages. Y’all be good now.