What a week. Every time I turn on the news the country seems embroiled in a new scandal.

Amazingly, we've had two protest marches in sleepy little Tauranga in the last fortnight, one because the country is turning into a police state and the other because animals are being forced to take drugs. And that's just the tip of the scandal iceberg.
What has always disappointed me about New Zealand, however, is that whatever political shenanigans we manage to get worked up about, we just don't seem to be able to muster a full-blown political sex scandal. I gaze in awe at America - and Italy and France – where politicians fearlessly expose themselves to public ridicule and odium simply through an inability to keep their trousers on in important situations.
And America (despite fierce competition from Italy's 'Silver Fox” and France's DSK) is currently in pole position for the scandal grand prix.
Personally I put it down to names. America has much more exciting names than New Zealand. We almost had a sex scandal here but then it fizzled into an argument over emails. What can you expect from a man with an uninspired handle such a Peter Dunne. 'Peter”? I guess there's a bit of scope there for wild headlines, but it's not going to set the world on fire. Especially when, in America, they have Anthony Weiner.
For those with an eye for the political sex scandal, Anthony Weiner is the gift that keeps giving, especially now that it emerges he was still sending unsolicited pics of his family jewels to unsuspecting women even as he and his wife were giving interviews to announce he was 'rehabilitated” and running for the position of New York mayor. I know we shouldn't laugh – schoolboy sense of humour and all that - but... Weiner? Really? A rose by any other name just wouldn't be so funny.
But one year's scandal is next year's yawn. Perhaps when another decade of tweeting has passed no one will think twice about 'weinering”.
Jazz once used to be the focus of scandal and opprobrium for corrupting the youth of the world. These days? Not so much.
And next weekend there seems to be jazz happening all over the place. Many of the town's jazz and blues musicians will be heading up north to the Bay of Islands Jazz & Blues Festival, a splendid event with a heavy Tauranga presence. The BBC (Bay Blues Company) are up there, as are Brilleaux, Kokomo and more.
Meanwhile, in Tauranga, The Entertainer's Club are putting on a show at the Bureta Park Motor Inn (Sunday August 11) with jazz ranging from old to new. At the old end is Bay Dixie, who play exactly what their name would suggest, while more modern is the Alan Harbourne Quartet, Alan being a pianist who made his name from 25 years playing at Sydney's famous Bourbon and Beefsteak Bar. There'll also be a special performance by Georgia Baker-Trebilco, NZ Country Music Junior Entertainer of the Year in 2010. (5pm, $10 on the door.)
And, if you need a getaway, that same Sunday there's the Pauanui Jazz Jam up the Coromandel.
A bus load of musicians and members of the Auckland Jazz and Blues Club will arrive at the Pauanui Club at approximately 12pm and for the next eight hours will play jazz and blues with locals, catch up, swap stories and enjoy the odd drink or three. All jamming musicians and listeners are welcome and it's free.
Now, before I go, let's just revisit the scandal/names thing. Eclipsing even the wonderful Weiner is a man who ran for mayor of Nashville in the 1980s. Once elected he left his (third) wife and, before his divorce, became engaged to a 'cabaret singer” named Traci Peel. Ms. Peel promptly gave an interview in which she confided that she and the mayor had just enjoyed 'seven hours of passion.”
Shortly afterwards, the duo appeared on TV's Phil Donohue Show, during which the mayor played harmonica while his fiancée belted out a version of the country staple 'Rocky Top”.
Soon after, in an interview, he blamed all of his troubles on the media sensationalising his private life. The man's name was Bill Boner. True story.