Matt Bell

So if you care to find me

@AtPhotness I like the pink, too

God damn! face card, hair card, body card

@keithedwards @jamespolchin “reign down” — among other things, what a profoundly stupid, illiterate man

A beautiful Easter weekend message from the president:

Under the cloud of discourse that has formed since its 2017 release, Guadagnino's "Call Me by Your Name" remains a rapturous, sensual idyll. For all its visual detail, it's a ravishing aesthetic abstraction; for all its purported "normativity," its heart stubbornly queer.

@BenjBrantley this article gives me great joy; it's all of my most cherished things rolled into one

The original Broadway Grizabella hits the ballroom to check out her latest successor and likes what she sees. A lovely generation-crossing (and -binding) piece by the immortal Betty Buckley. nytimes.com/2026/04/04/opi…

it's already starting . . . these Never X* types who say they oppose fascism must be shut down immediately and absolutely * it's "Never Newsom" now, but the object of their righteous fury will change over time

@blforinash @Darinstrauss I'm sure Eugenides is a nice guy and all, but sheesh this is a bad take

@ProfMattBell @Darinstrauss I mean, that's a creative way of saying he's irrelevant. Jeffrey Eugenides is the most contemporary author I can think of who is highly influenced by Henry James.

It's kind of surreal that people who supposedly like books are more likely to aggressively defend rereading Henry James than, you know, reading contemporary literature. Didn't know rereading Henry James was somehow the hill people will die on.

@Darinstrauss @blforinash the problem with reading James: afterward, everything pales in comparison. I haven't read a novel published in the last 50 years that compares

@blforinash It's not a binary. We do need to read contemporary stuff. Still, to dismiss not just James, but w/him Kafka, Joyce et al is to put oneself at huge disadvantage. It's like any other art. Even, say, rock guitar: "I don't know Hendrix, Beck,Page, Berry, VH..." you'd be missing lots

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again is the plot of a terrifying zombie movie

@ATPChallenger @Liambroady @the_LTA The crushed fh down the line is a great sign for LB. Good guy, fun game to watch. Hope he keeps winning.

Zen mode: activated 🧘‍♂️ @Liambroady cruises past Ilagan 6-4, 6-1 to reach his first semi-final of the season. #ATPChallenger | 🇯🇵 Miyazaki | @the_LTA

@ddiamond @juliettekayyem @ShawnMcCreesh These same people would not be upset or sympathetic if the images were of, say, Paul Pelosi. I’m just not buying the humanizing thrust of this piece.

The NYT’s @ShawnMcCreesh, who has a knack for finding a path into the biggest stories, says he went to South Dakota yesterday, hoping to convince Kristi Noem’s husband to talk. Then today’s Daily Mail photos happened. Another classic McCreesh piece. nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/…

@archivedilfs This doesn’t remind me of any other pics circulating on Twitter today. Nope. Not one.

@MerriamWebster never take the dictionary for granite, folks

Not to be THAT dictionary, but… It’s ‘per se,’ not ‘per say.’ It’s ‘dog-eat-dog world,’ not ‘doggy-dog world.’ It’s ‘hunger pangs,’ not ‘hunger pains.’ It’s ‘one and the same,’ not ‘one in the same.’ It's 'buck naked,' not 'butt naked.'

@BenjaminPDixon @selfstyledsiren Sounds like you’re laying the groundwork to performatively refuse to vote for the D presidential candidate in 2028 🤷‍♂️

It says a lot that the most coordinated online political action we've seen from Democrats since Donald Trump's re-election has been to go after Hasan Piker and his left-leaning media, But not to go after a single policy of Trumps. Really, ask yourself: when have you seen Dems be this coordinated?

*The term "sabbatical" is often misused. A sabbatical requires a proposal to conduct new research, the fulfillment of that proposal, and a report after the sabbatical leave has ended. Leaving your job after amassing enough money to be unemployed for a year is not a sabbatical.

go on the job market, receive an offer for a tenure-track position, prove yourself as a teacher, scholar, and servant of the university during a six-year probationary period, and then you get a sabbatical.* 2/2

A professor's life is a cakewalk, obviously. All you have to do to have that life is go through 5 years of graduate school, pass oral comprehensive exams, write a book-length work of original scholarship to earn a Ph.D., 1/2

HAPPENING NOW: A MASSIVE crowd has gathered in Boston, MA for a No Kings Day protest against convicted felon Donald Trump and his corrupt regime

@tomcolicchio I feel like there was that one time you were on TV?

20

@rickzeiser @iShowTunes @BettyBuckley @OfficialALW same . . . saw it by myself in the front row with a last-minute ticket purchase (cancellation line, November 1995), and loved it so much I brought a couple of friends to see it a second time. transcendent

@iShowTunes @BettyBuckley @OfficialALW Seeing Betty in Sunset Blvd. Was one of the best moments I have ever experienced on Broadway…..ever!!!!

.@OfficialALW and @BettyBuckley, 1995. #SunsetBoulevard #NormaDesmond

James Baldwin makes a cameo on The Pitt