Currents, an Interview Series with Brian Alan Ellis (Episode 6: Kat Giordano)

KAT GIORDANO lives in New Jersey, and is the author of The Fountain (Thirty West Publishing, 2020), a novel, and The Poet Confronts Bukowski’s Ghost (Philosophical Idiot, 2018), a poetry collection. Kat works as a legal writer and, in her off time, can be found playing simulation games, working out, or popping off with bad takes on Twitter dot com [@giordkat]. She is an avid fan of psychedelia and teen dramas and will do anything for the bit. Kat is very cool. You like her.

My current favorite poet is: Stephen Dunn.

My current favorite author is: Don DeLillo. But now I feel like a poser because I just had to Google to figure out whether it was “Delillo” or “DeLillo.” Also, there are other people I would mention here but it always feels really name-droppy to me if I bring up authors who are actual accessible people I know lol.

My current favorite film is: …okay, so my thing is that I really truly do not give a shit about “Film.” Like I honestly know two directors and don’t care to know more. Everyone can have little a cultural blind spot, as a treat. You will never hear me refer to a “Film.” My favorite MoViE is called Electrick Children and it’s about a Mormon teenager who mysteriously falls pregnant after listening to a song on a blue cassette tape and believes that she is carrying the son of God.  Almost everyone I have shown this movie to thinks it is fucking stupid but I think about it at least once a week.

My current favorite television show is: …well, I don’t know. I don’t watch a ton of shows but I do watch the entirety of both Gossip Girl and Degrassi: The Next Generation at least once a year.

My current favorite album is: Lonerism by Tame Impala.

My current favorite song is: “Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control” by Tame Impala.

My current favorite band is: Tame Impala.

My current favorite video game is: RimWorld and/or literally any other video game that has “factions” or makes me gather “resources”—basically doing chores without actually accomplishing anything irl.

My current state of mind is: …I’m supposed to be working right now. I have work that was due on Sunday that I was granted an extension for and am doing this shit instead, so infer what you will from that.

My current chemical romance involves: poppin’ two sour-flavored hemp/“CBD” gummies from Amazon dot com and pretending that it makes my period cramps go away.

My current favorite word is: …what if I told you it was “poggers”? Like, just hypothetically, what if I was like, “My favorite word or phrase is, unironically, poggers,” would I be shot on sight? Because it might be “poggers.”

My current mode of transportation is: …I don’t have a driver’s license but I take a lot of Greyhound buses. My favorite Greyhound bus story is that, right before the pandemic, I randomly started having a panic attack and became violently ill. I tripped over my coat while running to the back of the bus to puke in the background, partially slipping on my own puke that was leaking from between my fingers. Then I continued puking in the little bathroom. Then, because I was in such a rush to puke in the bathroom and forgot to lock the door, it violently swung open while I was literally shitting in the same Tupperware-ass Greyhound bus toilet. Yes, I am very hot and sexy.

My current favorite fast food item is: a Taco Bell taco twelve-pack—split with a love interest in a shitty car, or keeping the other half to eat soggy and cold for breakfast.

My current workout routine consists of: literally playing Ring Fit Adventure while wearing marijuana leaf-print underwear.

My current regrettable decision involves: telling author and publisher Brian Alan Ellis about my shit and vomit Greyhound bus extravaganza for his new project: CURRENTS, An Interview Series.

My current hopes and dreams are: that people read my book and don’t think it’s fucking stupid (except for the ways that it’s supposed to be fucking stupid). That sometime before the end of 2021 we can manage to move out of my bf’s parents’ house. That my dog will learn how to pull the bedroom door open with her paw instead of smack it with full force and then whine at me when it slams shut.

My current projects include: a top-secret literary website project that I have totally not teased on my Twitter multiple times already.

My current hobbies include: playing Ring Fit Adventure while wearing marijuana leaf-print underwear.

 

Kat Giordano is online at katgiordano.com.

Brian Alan Ellis runs House of Vlad Press, and is the author of several books, including Sad Laughter (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018). His writing has appeared at Juked, Hobart, Fanzine, Monkeybicycle, Electric Literature, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Funhouse, Heavy Feather Review, and Yes Poetry, among other places. He lives in Florida.

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