(ST. LOUIS) Remember collecting baseball cards as a kid? Now you can collect busker trading cards of all the wonderful street-performers in St. Louis.Thanks to Board Bill #181, busking and street-performing is now legal in St. Louis. They are now buskers to be memorabilia-ized! And collected! And traded!

It all came about when the city raised the busker fee in order to monitor buskers. Huh? That's exactly what buskers Fred Walker and Nick Pence said - along with the ACLU when it heard of such a preposterous notion.

Now that a wrong has been righted and the laughter has subsided, the buskers may be memoralized as a collector's card. The busker game includes finding each artist performing and having them sign their card. The winner gets featured in an upcoming street-performer festival.

It's a fun idea....

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(HONG KONG) A social-psychological study by the College of Professional and Continuing Education has shown some intriguing results when it comes to perceptions of public space.An affiliate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the study revealed that public space was perceived as more restorative with street performance than without street performance. In addition, people who had engaged with street performance in the space perceived the space as more visitable, more restorative, and more preferable than people who had not engaged with street performance.

This can have an interesting and dynamic influence when it comes to public policy-making. When updating areas in need of an overhaul, busking and street performing can only help in restoring run-down regions.

Some scientific assumptions and limitations...

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Tom Jones’s first attempt at busking began ominously as a crowd gathered around a set of speakers and a lone microphone set up on the South Bank of the Thames near the Royal Festival Hall. “It’s Tom Jones, isn’t it?” one woman asked. “I’ve never liked him since he had his nose done. He had a sensible Welsh nose in the old days.”

Skateboarders and BMX bikers gathered nonplussed at a nearby underpass. Sir Tom would be using the graffiti-covered skating area if it rained, they were told. “That would be a bit awkward,” one BMX rider said. “We’d have to ride around him.”

But any doubt that the 68-year-old singer could still thrill a crowd was dispelled the moment he stepped up to the microphone. “Can you hear me all right?” he asked. The crowd, which had swelled to about 400, cheered and raised their arms, not in celebration, but to capture the moment on their mobile telephones.
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(FILMRISE) A fascinating documentary by Penn and Teller reveals some ancient history when it comes to street magic. Starting from their base in Las Vegas which is home to over 400 magicians, the Magic & Mystery tour heads to India, China, and Egypt.The duo first travel to India to examine the famous Indian rope trick. Upon ariving, they note that Indian magicians like the use of "blood" in their cutting and restoring performances. P & T then take a grueling 4 hour bus ride to the Taj Mahal where the Indian rope trick is to be performed. This version has a rope come straight out of a basket which a little boy then climbs to the top.

Penn & Teller continue traveling to China where the original linking rings were born. They encounter a magician who informs them that the secret to the...

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(LONDON) Striking photographs from nearly 70 years ago show some of London’s most colourful street performers wowing the crowds in the mid-20th Century.The incredible images at the Sun display a fearless acrobat flinging themselves through a small head-height hoop, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator ‘snake charming’ in front of a captive audience, and disabled ex-servicemen performing to the passing crowds.

Another stunning photo shows a banjo player being ably assisted by his pet pooch and a gentleman quietly concentrating as he plays a tune on what appears to be a Zither – a stringed instrument which is fiercely difficult to master.

The shots capture a post-war Britain, still labouring under rationing laws but blinking in the light of a blossoming economy.

Check out the link below for more amazing vintage...

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