John Maynard

From “The Star Spangled Banner” to “Walk on the Wild Side”, popular music has re-told real-life events, stuff that actually happened.

Love songs are the heart, soul and spleen of the music business. And musicians, being rebels and upstarts, have always been pushing the boundaries of taste and decency, leading to some surprising outcomes…

Is it true that there there's a bank vault out there full of cold, hard cash that's now available to people trying to refinance? That's what KPLU's John Maynard asked Seattle-area real estate appraiser Richard Hagar when he dropped by KPLU's studios recently. Without skipping a beat, Hagar responded:

"The good news is if you've missed some mortgage payments or you were in foreclosure, banks now have more cash available. And they've loosened up the purse strings a bit."

The Beatles were famous for using sound effects they found in the Abbey Road library, and many other artists used sound to great effect. (haha)  Babby Darin’s “Splish Splash” had a gurgling bath in the track, and The Ronettes “Walking in the Rain” was Grammy-nominated for use of thunder sound effects.

Maybe the first use of sound effects in music was in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which calls for live cannons.

Maybe sometimes the desperation isn’t so quiet, but we begin with a premise by Thoreau, and head straight downhill from there.

The Hoosegow, the Big House, The Clink, Up The River, The Pen. We’ve never been ourselves, but we did time listening to scores of songs about "the slammer."

This week we learned that it’s good to be the king. But it’s a long road from being a lord or lady to becoming a duke, princess or king. Along the way there are dragons to slay and pop songs to suffer through.

Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once. And the sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. It’s deep thoughts like this that keep us up at night and make us sleepy during the day.

When most of us talk about condos, we’re usually referring to buildings with apartment units that are individually owned.  But as real estate appraiser Richard Hagar tells KPLU’s John Maynard, a condominium is technically a type of ownership.

So you can also "condominiumize" other types of property. Hagar says it's a hot trend for investors. 

Condo parking spaces

Clothes make the man, and in this case, the radio episode. Who knew that there would enough songs about pants to fill a front loading washer?

This week we pit musical legends against upstarts and imitators, in a duel to the death. You be the judge and jury.

Whenever we think about the past it brings back so many memories.

But what are memories, exactly?

There is a lot of disagreement about whether a “sugar rush” exists, but these studies have  obviously been conducted by scientists who don't have young children.

Nevertheless, there is agreement that anything this good must be bad for you. And it’s clear that sugar consumption is a factor in obesity, diabetes and dentists’s BMWs ...

KPLU's John Maynard bought a condo in 2007 – at the height of the market. He took out an adjustable-rate mortgage that's "adjusting" in June.

That's turned out to be good news for Maynard, who's mortgage payment will go down considerably since interest rates are low right now and expected to be so for quite some time.

Fashion never goes out of style, and popular music has always provided the sonic accessory. From “Buttons and Bows” to “Chantilly Lace," musicians love to sing about fashions, but arguably there has been a decline in the looks — and the music.