It's in my nature to try and find fault where there isn't any. Now I have made that admission, I would like to take issue with the majority of music festivals today.

Is it too much to ask to have an easily identifiable, clearly-stated direction apparent right in the title? Most names just don't give any clue - origins ranging from location (Glastonbury); corporate sponsorship (Virgin Fest); to complete nonsense (Bumbershoot, Lollapalooza) and I have a hard time nailing down exactly what I should expect to hear at any of them. Potential ticket holders are essentially at the mercy of an ever morphing lineup pulling from every genre of music and Lord help you if your taste doesn't traverse every one of them. Thankfully Vancouver's Festival Of Guns will save us all.

Named for the affinity rock guitarist have for calling themselves ‘gunslingers', the 6^th annual F.O.G. is about to descend on Vancouver. So I know if I go (which I will) I'm going to be treated to 60 bands, all of which will have at least one thing in common: guns... I mean: guitars. Be it Punk, Rock, Indie, Hardcore, Metal, or any number of sub-sub genres, the festival organizers have worked hard to uncover some of the region's finest independent musical talent and bring it together for 4 nights of gunslingin' action (Nov 15^th to 18^th). Bands of note include The Manvils, The Great Outdoors, The Spitfires, and The Sessions.

Oh, and because I can't resist tacking on a shameless self-promotion plug onto the end of this post. I will be one of those 160 guitarists (if my calculated estimate of 2 guitars, 1 bass player per band holds any weight). I am one of two last minute bass players standing in for Hot Little Rocket's Matt Swan who had to leave town very unexpectedly.

Bring out your guns.

I guess it's not so secret now, but Stars are playing Canada's third ever MySpace Secret Show November 18th at The Media Club in Vancouver.

The show is free for attendees on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more details, click here.

Also, If you can't get to a gig and would like some official Stars gear, they've just opened their own online store. If you register you could win $100 in free merch. If you win, don't forget about your pal Lana (size M) who told you about the store.

Ghost stories are like buying a lottery ticket. For a brief moment you believe...

My comrade Mary-Anne Korosi sent me this news story about security camera footage from a gas station in Parma, Ohio. It seems to show a blue ghost moving around outside near the cars. Or maybe it's an angel, says one of the customers; another wades in with the requisite "I think there was a native burial ground here once."

I've watched it a few times just because I like the thrill of imaging it really is something strange, unexplainable. And when we hear of the hoax - even that will be pretty great. I mean, why pick a gas station in Ohio, why make the ghost blue, and why in November - Halloween was weeks ago (as an aside - why do news anchors feel a need to speak in those inane phrases "say Dick, high gas prices aren't the only thing scaring people at this service station...")?

But for a brief time, like this past weekend when I imagined winning the $37 million from the 649, I look around me and feel like the landscape has changed. Things I couldn't see before are now right before my eyes. I didn't win and that real angel - Chris the master Vegas illusionist will probably fill us all in soon enough.

Of course there's always a few whiffs of the gas...that always makes me feel like a millionaire and see ghostly images, too!

Back to reality here, I'll be hosting a radio show and won't bring up scary gas prices stories, but I will take you to a riot, courtesy of Stars, bring you an interview with Vancouver's Elizabeth, Day 4 of the Song I'm Not Sick of Yet, and play a tune from a band you might not know made it into the 100 Top Canadian Albums.

Stay tuned...if you dare.

Coming up today on Grant Lawrence Live, 3PM ET / noon PT on CBC Radio 3's web radio:

Volume. Music. The two go together like vinyl on a turntable, strings on a guitar, moustache on a banger. But when does live music become songs for the deaf?

I received an email from a listener the morning after the Caribou tour migrated through Winnipeg. This listener was a huge fan, bought an advance ticket, and eagerly counted down the days to the show. She left three songs into Caribou's set. Why? Deafening decibels that cut through her ear plugs and bass lines that could dislodge the spine. Apparently, the volume ruined the songs. This leads us to our...

Poll Question of the day:

IS THE VOLUME TOO LOUD?

YES - 76%

NO - 24%

Yes or no? Are venues blasting us into the street with painfully loud PAs? Do bands need to play that #*!% loud? Doesn't it seem strange when a club full of people simultaneously pull out earplugs when the headliner goes on, ironically blocking out the sound of the show they just paid for? Must a club crank music between bands? Can't we talk with our friends at a normal level at any point of the night without screaming over the music?

Or... is that just a bunch of whining about one of the most visercal experiences on earth, a live, loud rock n roll show? Is volume part of the experience? Are earplugs for idiots? Was rock and roll and all its satellites made to be played loud or not at all? If it's too loud, are you too old? Is there such a thing as mid-to-low-volume hardcore, rap, punk, or metal beyond your iPod?

Please post your comments below.

Place your vote and share your volumous opinions and stories - good and bad- and we'll discuss your comments on today's show.

One lucky listener will win a set of CBC Radio 3 earplugs.

A CBC Radio 3 insider scoop: Lisa Christiansen CRANKS the studio speakers, Tariq likes his headphones at 11, and Lauren Burrows keeps the levels whisper-quiet at all times... what are you volume habits?

Stun gun death on video. CBC

Young Pakistanis turn to web for protest. Newsvine

David Letterman will pay his staff's salaries. Fafarazzi

French transportation strike extended. Reuters

Imran Khan, the Pakistani opposition leader, arrested yesterday after sending message 'my life is in danger'. Independent

China pursuing 'aggressive spying program'. US Commission. Breitbart

Chile receiving aftershocks after earthquake left 15,000 homeless. CBC

Possibly NSFW. 25 Dirty things you can learn from Google Trends... Kitchener... you dirty little weirdo! Zentastic

US Army deserters lose their bid to have the Supreme Court of Canada hear their cases. Globe and Mail

Dr. Garrett Lisi, a man happier on surfboard than in the lab, stuns physicists with theory of everything. Telegraph

I am one blessed S.O.B.

Throughout my radio and T.V. career, I've managed to meet and hang out with some pretty amazing people. The Amazing Kreskin, Joe Clark, Yanni, Amanda Putz, Geddy Lee, Shane MacGowan, Dave Thomas, Al Franken, Tie Domi, Tariq... among others.

I can now add to that list Mr. Igor Gouzenko. At least, that's who he said he was. Jittery and disoriented, Igor wandered into Toronto office of Radio 3, saying that he had some sensitive documents for Ernie Coombs. When informed of Mr. Coombs' passing, Mr. Gouzenko ran from the office screaming, "They got him. They got him, too!"

Hey, what're you doing this weekend?

The Craig Norris Hour airs Monday - Thursday: 12 noon ET
The show is pre-recorded an hour or so before you hear it, but I'll be checking the comments on the blog!

Not to sound nerdy, but I really miss making mixed tapes. I know it's very 80's, but there is just something about the pause-record-play that makes my heart flutter. Perhaps it's that mixed tapes require a smidge more love than burning a CD. To perfect the mix, you always have to find a 2 minute song to use up that last little bit of magnetic tape. And if you have a great record collection, mixed tapes used to be the only way to go.

Cassettes also require patience, unless you're willing to dub at high speed (and listen to your favourite tracks sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks).

Did I mention I also just re-watched High Fidelity for the 80^th time?

Anyway, I made a tape for my pal Josh. He's the kind of guy who has a bowl of Cheerios tattooed over his heart and Minor Threat tattoo on his calf. When searching for the 2 minute song to fill the end of the tape, I found this gem from The Creepshow. They're a psychobilly group from Burlington, Ontario, and when I saw them in Vancouver I shook my tail off.

What a perfect end to Dance Mix ‘07...kidding.

Subscribe: iTunes | MP3 | OGG
Direct Download: iTunes | MP3 | OGG
RSS : http://www.cbcradio3.com/podcast/trackoftheday/

So I'm on Luba's MySpace page (long story), and I notice Annie Lennox is one of her friends. I click, and who do I see on Lenox's page, but his Holiness himself, the 14^th Dali Lama.

Wow.

So this gets me thinking... if the Dali Lama is into MySpace... what about the Pope? And sure enough, Benedict XVI has his own page. If these are fakes, they're good ones. I'm absolutely positive the Dali Lama's page is real, and I'm pretty sure this really is the Pope's page, though his detail's section is almost too funny. Under "Children" he has "Love kids, but not for me.", and under "Occupation", he has "Pontificate", which is funny, but technically true.

Some other notable points...

:: The Pope at 2998, has fewer friends than the Dali Lama at 27,119.

:: People are generally nicer to the Dali Lama, or maybe the Pope just has a more open comment policy. (and the Pope appears to have a more eclectic group of friends)

:: If you start the players on their respective pages at the same time, you get a trippy mash-up.

:: The Pope has God as a friend, while the Dali Lama does not, so what does that tell you?

I was thinking about hipsters this weekend. All because of Norman Mailer, that great man of letters died at 84. Amongst his many accomplishments, according to the New York Times, was a hipster intellectual.

Now I'm not sure if everyone feels the same way I do, but "hipster" is not the most complimentary of terms. In fact, in this office it is definitely a word that could result in very angry words. Not that any of us don't want to seem fashionable or culturally relevant, it's just we don't want to seem like ironic poseurs who don't know how to think for ourselves anymore.

So either the writer of Mr. Mailer's obit is kinder to hipsters or just maybe the word used to mean something different.

Maybe like hippies - those people who at one time stood for social change, only to become smelly and lazy - the word hipster used to mean something. Could it be that it was synonymous with ingenuity and enthusiasm for the arts and politics?

It's something to ponder. Perhaps I will reclaim the word and make it a source of pride. I will come to work tomorrow and say "I was at this art show and it was filled with hipsters..." and instead of eye rolling my colleagues will ask where I was and make a point of stopping by because it's obviously a very important event.

I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

On today's show I'll be joined by Oshawa's favourite sons Cuff the Duke. They have a new release called Sidelines of the City, that, depending upon the review you read, is either a lot country or a lot rock. Even those terms have meant different things at different times.

Join me at 3 p.m. PT for Appetite for Distraction.

It's one thing to get your music into ads and on TV shows. But you know you've really hit the bigtime when a major comedy troupe spoofs your work.

As you undoubtedly know - how can you not? - Feist is absolutely everywhere these days, thanks to the iPod ad that features her video for the ridiculously catchy, gets-lodged-in-your-head-for-days song "1 2 3 4".

Now, Mad TV has created its own hilarious take on the Feist video, which is one single shot in a warehouse space, and includes a pack of colourfully-dressed dancers.

Check it out here.