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Family Life

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[edit] John Flansburgh

[edit] Wife

See Robin Goldwasser for main article

Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser is John Flansburgh's wife. They got married in 1996. She co-wrote the musical People Are Wrong! (peoplearewrong.net) with Julia Greenberg and often collaborates with They Might Be Giants.

[edit] Parents

Polly Flansburgh (From bostonbyfoot.org)

His dad, Earl R. Flansburgh, was the head of a successful Boston architectural firm that specializes in designing and renovating schools; his mom, Louise Hospital "Polly" Flansburgh, a general's daughter, founded Boston-By-Foot in 1976 (a non-profit organization that gives walking tours of Boston). They both graduated Cornell University in the early-to-mid-1950s. (Polly was in the class of 1953.) According to John, his mother is a left-hander, as he is.

It seems as though John actually has had a pretty meaningful relationship with both of them; he has mentioned how he got his fashion sense from his dad, said that his parents are "huge boosters" of TMBG, and almost always accidentally swears when they're in the audience. They also seem to have influenced John musically. Answering a question in the TMBG Mailing List, he says, "My parents were supportive, but not too into the professional part. My dad played the coronet and my mom played the piano and sang a lot."

[edit] Siblings

Paxus

John Flansburgh has an older brother, Earl Schuyler Flansburgh (or Sky, for short) with whom he doesn't seem to have the best relationship. Like his parents, Sky graduated from Cornell University with degrees in economics and engineering. However, around 1982, he changed his name to Paxus Calta and began traveling around the world as a radical activist against nuclear power. In 1998 he entered the Twin Oaks commune in Louisa, Virginia, where, as of June 2005, he is still a member.

According to their web site, the commune "is made up of around 85 adult members and 15 children. Since the community's beginning in 1967, our way of life has reflected our values of cooperation, sharing, nonviolence, equality, and ecology."

He has some photos (1, 2, 3, 4) in their gallery and a webpage on their site, but it's not apparent if he updates it anymore. As of 2005, Sky was going by the name Paxus Calta-Star informally, though his name is still listed as simply Paxus Calta on legal petitions against nuclear power. He has said that he is not fond of his brother's band and its music and has suspected that the songs "Hot Cha" and "Chess Piece Face" were written about him. When someone mentioned this last bit to John after a TMBG concert, John replied, "He thinks a lot of things are about him." John Flansburgh has said that "Boss of Me" is about him, though.

As of September 2006, Sky's web page lists his full name as "Paxus Adrian Zakarya Adelova-Calta" and indicates that he now gives his name as "Adrian Calta." He explains:

"Adrian is my formal name. It's a name which needs no explaining (unlike Pax or Paxus), it is a common enough name. I can introduce myself to anyone as Adrian Calta and the conversation flows onto the next topic. I had used my previous middle name to distinguish myself from my father w/ who i share the same first name, so i was used this type of arrangement. But Adrian has its own history."

[edit] External Links

[edit] Other Relatives

  • John Flansburgh says he has a nephew and a niece, as of 2008. His older brother, Paxus, has a son, Willow, with his wife Hawina Falcon. Presumably his niece is on Robin's side of the family.
  • According to an interview on Liberadio(!) in October 2007 (see Archived Radio Appearances), one of Flansburgh's ancestors is Ida Tarbell, famous muckraker and writer of the exposé The History of the Standard Oil Company.

[edit] John Linnell

[edit] Wife

Karen Brown is John Linnell's wife. They married in 1997. They have a son, Henry, who appeared in Gigantic. She likes contemporary rock music, like The Hives (she dragged John to a Hives concert once, and he said he thought it was fun and that they were a funny band). She also likes new wave (which John notes as something that they have in common). She was formerly the VP of Creative Services at Capitol Records, and co-founded Brown+Ryan, a design company, in 1999. She produced Shannon Worrell's album The Moviegoer, on which John played accordion.

[edit] Children

Henry Linnell, the first TMBG child, was born in 1999 to John Linnell and Karen Brown. He made a brief (and cute) appearance in Gigantic, during which he informed viewers about the difference between eyes and eyeballs (eyeballs are in your head, eyes are on your face) and discovered the camera viewfinder while eating a bagel sandwich. He does some speaking for Letter/Not A Letter on Here Come The ABCs! credited as Henry Linelli on the CD, but not the DVD.

[edit] Parents

John Linnell's mother & Polly Flansburgh

John's father is Dr. Zenos M. Linnell, a former psychiatrist licensed in NY and MA. According to the Boston University website, he is a 1953 graduate of their med school, and a donor to BU in 2005-2006. He has published several articles on child cognitive development - "Thinking about 'Thinking about Thinking'" and the quite recursive "Thinking about Thinking about 'Thinking about Thinking'."

John's mother, a poet, was not a fan of television, according to the September 1998 KVRX interview before the TMBG show at Stubbs. He reports, " ...when I was a teenager my mom threw the TV in the trash ...We had this little black and white set and she just marched into the basement and whipped it into the trash can. We didn't have TV for the rest of the time I was living at home."

When asked if his parents like his music, John replied, "My dad is a pretty rabid follower of our music. He has opinions on almost every song. My mom is generally not as interested in contemporary pop music, but she likes our lyrics and has all the records."

According to John Flansburgh, John Linnell has a step-mother. Flansburgh quotes her as saying, "It's not what you've learned, it's how many times you learned it."

[edit] Siblings

Not much is known about Linnell's siblings, but apparently, he has a younger sister named Julia who was born in February of 1961, and a brother (whom he mentions in this article and has referenced as Andrew Linnell in concert).

A woman in Eugene, Oregon is said to be his step-sister. She describes him as shy and enjoying bicycles, and has stories of childhood music-making.

[edit] Other relatives

[edit] Band Members

  • Dan Miller was married in June 2008 to Annette Berry, a graphic artist and art director in New York City.
  • Danny Weinkauf is also married and has a daughter, Lena, and a son, Kai, born in March 2002.
  • Marty Beller is married and has a daughter, Violet, who was born September 12, 2005, and he also had a son in January 2008.
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