BRISTOL, Tenn. – The city has launched a program to encourage performers to display their talents at designated downtown spots billed as “busk stops.”

Known as “Busk Stop Central,” the program will allow performers – including jug musicians, avant-garde mimes, tap-dancers, orange jugglers, rubber-band pluckers, bongo players, Flamenco guitarists, spoken-verse poets, Austin Powers imitators, Renaissance Fair re-enactors and other artists – to legally do their thing at specified downtown locations and receive donations from passers-by.

“Busk” refers to an old English term for street performers, known as “buskers.”

A performer must apply for a free city permit to perform at one of three designated areas, all on State Street. The busk stops are marked with medallions in the sidewalk.

For details, contact the Bristol D...

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(ASPEN) Let us take a Summer stroll up to Aspen and see how the buskers are faring.In this sleepy little hamlet high above the madding crowds lies four downtown city blocks and the high-end shopping district. Within the red bricked lanes are planters, evergreens, grass, trees, and benches. Classic streetlamps light the way and no cars are allowed. The style was influenced by Boulder and it's mall on Pearl Street.

In Aspen (or "Hollyweed" as the locals call it), you can find many buskers plying their art. Why, you may even run into a "moobie star" out shopping at any given time. The famous four ski lifts long quiet, people are finding Colorado in the Summertime rather interesting, fun, and something out of the ordinary.

A Busker Central News reporter busked Aspen a while back. "As...

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(VENICE BEACH) It seems Venice Beach is the starting point for some busker's fame. Such is the case of the Naked Cowboy's forthcoming revelations.Ironically, he joins another famous busker who first started juggling real chainsaws on the famous California boardwalk.

In his new book, author Bob Burck a.k.a. The Naked Cowboy, exposes his rise to busker fame and unveils a life goal in his autobiography "Determination: The Legend of the Naked Cowboy".

"I want to be the most famous man on the face of the earth," Burck tells a reporter from the The Daily Free Press. Because he was a model and a bodybuilder, a photographer suggested Burck play guitar in his underwear to gain the attention he was sorely missing while busking on Venice Beach. The rest is history.

Well on his way, Burck is also...

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I've been busking without a tip jar or sign. I don't ask for money i just play. When someone offers money i stop playing, put the money in my pocket. The police tell me im soliciting. I say no im not. They say yes you are. I say no im not....ect . can anyone give me some talking points? One cop said by accepting money im giving the impression that im soliciting and i would have to prove that i didn't in court.

A veteran Nanaimo busker claims she is being told by the Port of Nanaimo to conform to busking rules along the waterfront, without knowing exactly what those rules are.

Cathy Davis said she's been told by the Port that they regulate all busking on the federally owned property. She also said she's been told that there have been complaints about her and others who have joined her busking at the waterfront.

Last month Davis sent an e-mail to Mike Davidson, property manager at the Port, asking him to list the nature of the complaints, without revealing who made them. Davis has so far received no reply.

Davidson told the Daily News in an Oct. 2 story that the Port issues its own special permits. Davis said she has also heard nothing back from Davidson about getting such a permit.

Davidson did not return calls to the Daily News on Wednesday.

While the weather is now too foul for busking,...

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