Megan Stielstra's Blog

So we’ve got this monthly 2nd Story show going at Red Kiva where we pair storytellers up with musicians, which finally allows me to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a rock star, which I thought was forever thwarted because people, I can’t sing worth a damn, but I CAN tell a really good story with guitar players and drummers and pianists and vocalists and a magic DJ who makes entire orchestras out of small black boxes.

I’ve done a lot of shows with musicians, but this Red Kiva thing we’ve got going is special ‘cause it’s not a one-time gig: we’re constantly producing new work and it really differs from our usual shows at Websters in that the performance is front and center.

Which means I have to get better at it. Performing, I mean. Which comes back to the whole rock star thing.

I was telling all this to a friend last night, and she said, “I didn’t know you wanted to be a singer.”

“Not a singer,” I said. “I can’t sing—I want to be a rock star.”

She said something really weird then. She said, “Why?”

And I’m like, Well FIRST OF ALL, doesn’t EVERYONE?

And second, exhibits one through six (for starters):

This next one’s a little before my time but Holy Shit she’s good:

I can’t embed this one but it’s worth the jump.

But most of all, for me, it was and always has been her: