iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Joni, Ravel, Madison Cunningham, etc., would all be on a poster of “albums that remade me,” but these were some of the big ones that counted for teen and twentysomething Rob #my9albums

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There’s something about third albums; they are often a test of where and how far an artist can go. That’s how I felt about Olivia Rodrigo’s latest, which landed harder with me than anything she’d done yet, and I feel even moreso about Phoebe Bridgers’s great, possibly bottomless new record.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New issue out, really happy with this one (and what a cover, if I may say so myself)

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Just catching up with this Lau Noah disc from 2024. Holy moly, is it good. If you like your finger-picking folk with a strong dose of classical counterpoint, a dash of flamenco, and exquisite vocal harmonies, this one's for you. launoah.bandcamp.com/album/a-dos

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

David Byrne at Forest Hills Stadium last night was one of the most vivid and exhilarating shows I’ve ever seen. He and his songs seem ageless. Heaven is a place where this kind of music happens.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Ryan Drake’s BIG FEELINGS is a neat parlor trick, lowering our emotional guard by casting us as 1st graders in a class run by a too-chipper teacher, all the better to devastate us with Julia Greer’s tour-de-force meltdown of a performance.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Devastated to hear of Duncan Sheik's death. Here's the piece I wrote about him and the writing of "Spring Awakening" for the LA Times when the show was opening at the Ahmanson back in 2008. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

One of the first regional productions of LIBERATION (Berkeley Rep) is following the protocols the show followed in its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs (this is from a press release I just received). This seems to be becoming a (welcome) new standard re: stage nudity.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

As a huge MST3K fan, I'm used to savoring it on small screens, so it was a blast to take in a brand new installment, skewering a deliciously awful '60s horror schlockfest, STING OF DEATH, at the Regal UA Kaufman Astoria as a Fathom event yesterday. I could watch this stuff all day (and often have)

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Finished the twisty Japanese sci-fi crime drama THE HUMAN VAPOR a few weeks ago. It goes to some wild places and I’m not sure it all adds up by the end, but it’s much more intense and moving than you might expect. On Netflix

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Just finished all 3 seasons of the great Irish procedural thriller THE FALL, which is above all a masterpiece of tonal control. Its cool, patient approach made its shocking turns all the more bracing, and made the familiar contours of the cat-and-mouse serial killer plot seem freshly unsettling.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Given its pitch-black subject matter, it's probably wrong to call it a relief that Liz Meriwether's twisty, terrific FURIOUS stuck the landing. But it did, bringing its unique combination of wit and anguish, cringe and cheer to a suitably barbed end.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I wish the old El Chavo in Silverlake were still open so I could go there to raise a toast to the immortal Dolly Parton, for whom they used to have a shrine by the bar.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Both also had the great virtue of ending on top rather than sputtering along past their welcome. A teeny 'tini toast to SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE and HACKS

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Belated Hockney memorial post: On the wall of my home office is this 1998 cover of the magazine I used to run. Through his LA office, Hockney gave us the rights to use this portrait of Ian McKellen for a nominal fee. Forever grateful

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I love the sinuous, searching singer-songwriter pop of Joan As Police Woman, who just released a new reimagining of her brilliant 2006 debut; I've been playing both back to back and hearing new stuff each time. Fave track on the original: still "Flushed Chest"; on the new one: "Christobel."

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Like all good things, OBSESSION has been overrated. But I did admire its lo-fi single-mindedness—its unwavering commitment to a feel-bad vibe, which oddly enough makes it a great collective in-theater watch—and its old-fashioned scare tactics, much of them thanks to Taylor Clemons’s cinematography.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I was already a fan, but with her new record Olivia Rodrigo has entered my personal pantheon. Song for song it’s great, but what keeps me coming back is the sequencing—even if you don’t track the smitten-to-heartbroken arc of the album’s concept, it has a gorgeous flow, an irresistible momentum.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The new Rodrigo and McCartney albums are great, but don't sleep on TAILSPIN, the sumptuous new record by L.A. essential Eleni Mandell. It has her signature singer-songwriter-does-rockabilly vibe in spades, and the vocal harmonies on this one are especially sweet. music.apple.com/bb/album/tai...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The 1988 David Hockney retrospective at LACMA was formative for me. I loved his luminous paintings, but I was especially struck by his Polaroid collages, like this one (Pearblossom Highway). It's safe to say he made me see California in a new light, literally.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

About 30 years ago, my friend Cinco told me about an idea he had for a musical where 2 guys get trapped in a town that’s a musical. The premise changed a bit, obviously, but he wrote the damn thing and the rest is (TV and) Broadway history. Literally couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy! So proud.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

More than any stage rendition I’d yet seen, VANYA ON 42nd STREET unlocked Chekhov for me, so it was a joy to revisit it at Metrograph last night. Now that I know the play well, I can recognize how odd this version is (and how influential it’s been). My faves remain Wallace Shawn and Brooke Smith.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

From Wesley Morris’s must-read new profile of Spielberg (not online yet), this passage leaped out. So who do we think will take him up on this, and what stage project would you love to see him tackle?

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I got MHZ Select to watch THE BRIDGE (worth it) so I also got to catch BABYLON BERLIN’s 4th season. Not as essential as seasons 1 & 2, but miles better than season 3. A bit fan service-y, but still alternately thorny and slick, disturbing and heartening. I give it a conditional recommendation.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I missed their viral video, but just hearing Angine de Poitrine's latest record was enough to make me swoon for their spiky, headlong math rock. It's not easy to make music this weird this compelling; I think the key is that there's much joy as rigor in their sound. open.spotify.com/album/3FqqIe...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Had to get MHZ Select to watch, but it was worth it: The first 2 series of the Danish/Swedish THE BRIDGE are a coolly miserabilist drama as much as a cop thriller. I clocked all the contrivances & shortcuts but I loved it, esp. the halting, combustible, tragic chemistry of Sofia Helin and Kim Bodnia

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

It’s never not an interesting time to read THE ILIAD, a deeply strange, occasionally grim, often unspeakably moving, bloody-yet-also-lofty-minded epic of small details and vast concerns. If I had to pick, I do prefer THE ODYSSEY for its variety and scope, but this one definitely packs a punch.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s INDIAN PRINCESSES is going to get a lot of comparisons (THE WOLVES meets Annie Baker meets THANKSGIVING PLAY, etc.) but it’s a thing of beauty, heartbreak, and oddball joy all its own. Extraordinary cast and production across the board. At the Atlantic through June 7

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I’m supposed to consider Geese either the Second Coming of Guitar Rock or a shitty hipster psyop—apparently these are the only acceptable opinions. So sue me, I think they’re *fine*. The best stuff on this record is damn good, the rest is average and above. geesebandnyc.bandcamp.com/album/gettin...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

He had more to say about ITHOTN

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I once had the pleasure of interviewing him and this is how the interview started www.robkendt.com/Features&New...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

“Blood harmony” is the sound of family singing together. It’s one of my favorite things in the world, and it’s all over the joyful immersive musical CANCIONES, loosely inspired by Linda Ronstadt’s mariachi records and playing at a private home in Brooklyn through May 24. Highly recommend

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Happily spending the day with Raye's lush, dramatic, fun, frothy new record. What a delight. No low points, but my particular faves are a neat summary of its range: "I Know You're Hurting" and "Happier Times Ahead." open.spotify.com/album/3ZN01x...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I had trouble following the plot of Park Chan-wook’s DECISION TO LEAVE, but no problem feeling the weird, obsessive pulse at the center of the film between Hae il Park’s insomniac detective and Tang Wei’s slippery femme fatale. VERTIGO touches aside, it’s a fever dream with its own twisty logic.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Another stacked podcast. Cedric the Entertainer is always a joy to hear, and Michael Arden & Dane Laffrey of THE LOST BOYS were incredibly open about their show's ambitions and budget. We also got an update on the Seattle theatre scene from the great Gemma Wilson. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

It’s normal to cry through most of a musical, right? In totally unrelated news, I just saw the 2021 WEST SIDE STORY on the big screen for the second time, and I’m prepared to call it one of my favorite Spielberg films, and definitely one of the great film musicals.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

It has second-act issues, yes, but overall I found THE LOST BOYS a great ride. It’s a bit like STRANGER THINGS if it had a better script and lots of power ballads. Also: Is this the first musical with a post-curtain-call stinger?

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

For whatever reason, I’ve become something of a fan of ludicrously grim, wintry murder shows: DEADWIND, VALHALLA MURDERS, CHESTNUT MAN. I’d add the somber, addictive Austrian series PAGAN PEAK to the list (thanks @jessgrose.bsky.social for the rec). It’s worth watching for its 2 lead actors alone.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Not the best but definitely the bleakest DEATH OF A SALESMAN I’ve seen, which feels all too apt for our current American moment. A pressure test of the play’s tensile strength, it’s got a bracing, funereal beauty of its own. Attention paid in full.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

What an absolute delight FALLEN ANGELS is. Sometimes a play gives you clear evidence of how much fun the rehearsal room must have been but it doesn’t necessarily translate across the footlights; with this one the sense of play is delicious, irresistible, all-pervasive.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I can’t be objective, as Cinco Paul is a childhood friend, but now that critics have weighed in I feel I can join the chorus of praise for SCHMIGADOON, an embarrassment of riches full of wit, heart, craft, and joy. Indeed, aside from the new CATS, it’s the most joyful night to be found on Broadway.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

“Soul-wrecking” may not sound like a compliment or a recommendation, but it’s the best way I can sum up the extraordinary impact of Kaija Saariaho‘s towering opera INNOCENCE at the Met, in a devastating production by Simon Stone. Run, don’t walk to this one.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

I had much the same opinion of FEAR OF 13 as most of my colleagues, but I must say that Adrien Brody makes an impressive stage debut. Is it a self-conscious star turn? Yes. A tad schmactory? No question. But the guy can hold the stage, and in the right role I think he'd kill.

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Reading Walter Kerr on the advice of @helenshaw.bsky.social and I’m still thinking of this brilliant turn of phrase, at the end of an item about how Eddie Foy brought his usual vaudevillian shtick to an ostensibly serious role: “We pretend to believe in legitimacy, but we can’t be serious.”

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Rob Weinert-Kendt @robkendt.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

I don't know who introduced me to the great Brazilian singer-songwriter Tim Bernardes—thank you, whoever it was! I've been lost in this lush, sinuous 2022 record all day. Imagine Jeff Buckley and/or Nick Drake doing MPB and you're close. Exquisite. timbernardes.bandcamp.com/album/mil-co...

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