I've been thinking about Susan Boyle in the last few days, well not Susan Boyle herself but that ungainly thing now known as the Susan Boyle Phenomenon.

And of course it was eye-opening and amazing and spectacular and heartbreaking and tragic, even if, being twelve thousand miles from England, we were spared the odious excesses of that country's gutter presses, almost certainly the lowest and slimiest exponents of journalism in the world.
The difference from the normal celebrity mauling was that this time it was an amateur in the crosshairs, but the finale of her checking into rehab must have caused much newsroom celebration.
In a way this was the perfect encapsulation of modern celebrity, of the speed of fame in these interconnected times. With You-Tube everyone will be famous for fifteen seconds.
Susan Boyle was bigger than Elvis after singing one song. That song was her career's entire first act. The second song wasn't so good, people didn't get quite the same rush of unfamiliar astonishment and by the third song (just like fat Elvis in later years it was the first song again, but redone) everyone was bored. So the dancing kids win and last week's phenomenon goes where all discarded stars end up – rehab. Skip the actual career and achievements, just give us the juicy bits…
It seems like the ideal metaphor for today's fame-driven culture, where the desire for celebrity is far greater than the desire to do anything that would make you a celebrity. Read the news and you're a celebrity, make up a silly story for reporters at a crime scene and you're a celebrity, do something outrageous on a reality TV show… Do we really live in an age where people – without a trace of irony – are referred to as 'Reality TV Stars”?
That's one thing that is still very appealing about the Tauranga music scene: everyone is in it for the music, and everyone knows they need to do the hard yards. Witness Luke Thompson and the way he is slowly working his way up the ladder, plying his trade, playing the gigs and paying his dues. No one talks about paying your dues on American Idol. There are dozens of Tauranga musicians toiling at their craft and I would hazard a guess that most of them are doing it for a love of music, not some pre-packaged dream of celebrity.
Amongst these are the many up and comers doing music courses at the Polytechnic. It's not glamorous – this is, after all, studying – but it is an environment where creativity and the excitement of new discovery happily flourish.
Four times a year the Polytechnic go public and next week is their Winter Music Showcase, which takes place at The Colosseum on Wednesday night (July 10, 7.30pm). These nights are always worth a look and a good chance to spot future leaders of the Tauranga music scene. This showcase will be as varied as usual.
Fronted by singer/songwriter Meike Thorburn, Glen's Mistake is a pop/rock band comprising senior students, mixing originals and covers. Offering a different flavour is Souljah, who dig into roots reggae and have been compared to Trinity Roots and Kora. Jjazz, are a guitar-based four-piece playing rock and funk and including local musicians Jeff Kildare and Tarquin Keys, bass player for Luke Thompson. And there's Andre Harris, a beatboxer unrestricted by genres, who fuses elements of HipHop, Dub and Drum and Bass together and uses a Loopstation to create multi-layer sonic soundscapes.
More music for the love of it and, in this case, in service of a good cause, happens next Sunday (June 14) at the Bureta Park Motor Inn when the annual Jazz For Waipuna concert takes place.
Running from 12 noon, things kick off with the Tauranga Boys College Combo who performed so well at this year's Jazz Festival. Then it's the slinky keyboard playing of Alana Milson and her trio followed by a group of special guests from Napier, the Men In Black, with Kevin Morris leading two saxophones and a trombone.
The line-up is completed by two local favourites, Bay Dixie (seen every Wednesday night at Bureta Park) and saxophonist Rob Smith's Bay Blues Company. Trevor Braunius will be playing jazz guitar between acts and, with all money raised going to the hospice, $15 seems a very reasonable ticket price.
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