A few years ago, the Minneapolis city council passed an ordinance that you have to have a license to busk. Then they refused to issue any licenses. One busker sued them and won. They were forced to issue him a license. I don't know how many licenses they have issued since then, but busking is still pretty rare here.

As my wife said, you have to practice anyway. Why not practice in public and get paid for it? (She doesn't practice what she preaches, however.)

I once heard a busker at a downtown bus stop during rush hour. He had parked himself near where well dressed suburbanites were waiting for an express bus to take them home. He sang a song to the tune of "The Ballad of the Green Berets" where the refrain was "Won't you die, you yuppie scum?" I admire that kind of guts. I guess the moral is, you can afford to take more risks when you busk.

Another line I remember from his song was, "No bargain basement anymore." He made a point that I had never thought about before: downtown has been taken over by yuppies. There is no place downtown for poor or working-class people to shop. Walgreen's has closed, Montgomery Ward has closed, and Dayton's bargain basement has closed. We now have Nieman Marcus and Sharper Image. Nothing makes a point like singing in the midst of the very stuff you are singing about.