Eddie Clay & The Soliloquies

Retired Silicon Valley Engineer, now creating muse on Silicon Beaches

[eddieclaysol]

Back to Open Mic

This for my old friends from the South Bay, I am (finally) back to doing Open Mics etc. It's only been whhat?, more than 10 years for sure. It was scary to do this, just like the first time I got up on King's Head stage in 2005. Welp, here in HB surf City here I go again... Eddie Clay at Beach Hut Deli HB

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My first public singing appearance in over 10 years. Kelly and I honestly don't remember where/when the last stage was that I played, probably with the "Two Brits and a Yank" at an irish pub near the San Jose airport. Was a way cool place in Oceanside, Raynaldo the great host, and he plays bass, and also drums with his feet, and also an amazing guitar player/singer. https://www.coomberwines.com/ Every sunday night. We had a blast.

[eddieclaysol]

Hi Clay, I'm trying to reach you via email, resurrecting our decade-old correspondence re PenPoint. I sent email to both clayton AT kellyagent DOT com and clayton AT wanderbook DOT com, which I suspect are both stale addresses already. What email addresses can I nowadays send to? I'm still pitz.wong AT gmail DOT com

[email protected]

[eddieclaysol]

My Set List

I am going to "Get back into the game again, change the shape i’m in, start singin' again" - Clay Pigeons by Blaze Foley My current set list, lyrics, chords, tabs for each. Just click on below. Best to have an account with Ultimate, then you can click on ellipsis (AKA, "..." or dot-dot-dot) to customize. For example, default view is for guitar, for piano, change "Chords for..." option. I'll also post PDF files soon. The backing tracks are ready to go. Now? Open Mics, house concerts, maybe actual gigs, ha ha

Shared playlist by eddieclayw

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Visit Original Link

(Eddie Clay)

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EPS - Review of a Campbell CA Little League Team’s Season (2001)

Cathi Wilson recently reminded me of a video tape mini documentary I made of my son’s and her son’s last Little League year. I made VHS copies and passed them out to all the families at our end of season party in July of 2001. I’m still learning a product called Topaz Video Enhance AI, which improves the quality of old videos/films, but here is an enhancement of the old VHS recording converted to digital. The team was called EPS after Ernie’s Pool and Spa. Unlike my LL, and most others, instead of naming teams after pro sports team or animals and such, Campbell LL (due to its blue collar roots) named them after local sponsoring business. Watching this brings back many memories of coaching youth sports and this was my first stab at it. I even got paid to coach a middle school team for a few years. That’s as good as when I got paid to host an open mic and play music at a local pub. After those ditch digging days I talked about, getting paid to do something I loved doing was always my goal, and for the most part always seemed to achieve. Thank you lord. Anyway, looking back I wish I was more like my Dad. He always looked at youth sports as nothing but fun and games, even when he was a youth himself (not until high school anyway - link to that story at in followup comment). I guess when you grew up in the depression era, you had other things to worry about (we would all learn that 2 months later, right?). Even when I was a youth, he never took my sport endeavors seriously. Or a better way to put it, he was a much more mature Dad than I was. Whatever loss of sleep I had over a kid’s error, strikeout, or the team’s 1 run loss was just plain silly. This video is a reminder that it really is about fun and games. https://vimeo.com/684685980

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1964 Linemen in Barstow

Mainly for my kids and their kids I’ve completed digitizing all the families videos, tapes, films and pics, etc.. Now I am editing and enhancing them (inspired with software used for the "Get Back" documentary). Next job, categorize them and put comments in where memories might add context.

In the beginning my Dad is seen climbing a power pole. Yeah, maybe some background music would add to this, but it won’t be Wichita Lineman, that was a telephone lineman. Power-linemen have a much more dangerous job.

I say its 1964 (but could be wrong) because at end of this video, there I am, looking to be at least 5 at what I remember was the Barstow mobile park we often stayed.

I recognize some faces of the linemen as well, but can’t place their names but for one! Hey Danny Janelli and Debbie Janelli Dennis , at point 1:24, I bet you’ll recognize him too ;-) Joe Janelli, his wife and Paulene were my parents best friends during this era. They worked hard and played hard. The play hard part especially when the wives and kids were not visiting while on the road. There’s just a few seconds of footage of the world famous El Rancho Motel (off of Route 66) after another long day enjoying a beer (or two).

Then the film cuts to my Dad water skiing. Then back to work. This time sky high on Power Transmission Towers.

Many don’t know this about me but out of high school my dad got me a union ticket in IBEW. I was a groundman (AKA “grunt”) for almost three years. Not a lineman, just looking at this film gives me scardy-heightess.

So what do grunts do? Using ropes and pulleys they pull stuff up to the linemen, pull stuff down, get cussed at, drive the trucks, have to laugh at the Linemen jokes, dig ditches… It was digging ditches in hot scenes like this that made me realize more than anything else, manual labor was not for me.

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@eddieclay | Linktree

Linktree. Make your link do more.

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Eddie Clay & The Soliloquies

I'm going to start posting my old stuff. This is a CD you can actually still buy on amazon, ebay, etc., LOL, just google "eddie clay & the soliloquies". Let's tag it #ECATS. I wrote on the flap the following excerpt (I actually recorded this stuff between 1986 and 1989 after got my degree to Silicon Valley to become a software engineer):

"Back in the middle-age days of LA new wave and mod rock: Eddie Clay, a Huntington Beach bodysurfer, could be found playing with buds in a band called The Loose at various venues such as the Cuckoos Nest, Madamm Wong's Chinese Theatre, and Hong Kong Cafe...Eddie was a raw downstroker of a guitarist, attacked his fake telecaster like a jigsaw and often by the end of the show his strings, fingers and white t-shirts were a bloodied mess. People assumed it was cause he didn't know how to play, so he learned to wear black t-shirts. The LA scene was surreal, the music powerful, and as paradigm shifting as anything but, unfortunately in the backyard of the Hollywood music industry, it was largely ignored. The Loose made some awesome recordings, and were on the verge of a mega deal, but that is another story which ended in implosion.

Nobody heard from Eddie again. Rumor had it he changed his name and became part of the establishment - got married, bought a house, got a dog, had kids...But apparently before he did all that...he took his first paycheck earned out of college and bought a Fostex 4 track recorder ... got a great deal on a Takamine acoustic, then alone in his studio apartment, like the engineer he had become, he recorded the songs written by the wildcat he was. He put it all in a box with some notes and his intentions to do something with them 'after my Honeymoon to Jamaica.' Years and years Eddie Clay was found at an English pub performing in the South San Francisco Bay Area. By popular demand his recordings were resurrected and slapped onto CD in their raw state, like the rough edges of a jigsaw cut, in some ways a bloody mess like the old HB loose days, ...Play loud and be careful - very addicting."

Here's the playlist (before I post the songs here, I'm gonna see if I can do a little remastering, in meantime you can listen to it here !

Tracklist

1) Under My Bed (04:00) - Eddie Clay

2) Wildcat (03:04) - Eddie Clay

3) Away (02:46) - Eddie Clay

4) Woman I Never Knew (03:51) - Eddie Clay

5) Bottled Up (03:33) - Eddie Clay

6) Pick It Up (01:57) - Eddie Clay

7) Addiction (06:04) - Eddie Clay

8) You're Hurting Me (04:16) - Eddie Clay

9) To Tell You the Truth (02:55) - Eddie Clay

10) I'm Too (03:00) - Eddie Clay

11) Bring It Back (04:28) - Eddie Clay

12) I Just Found Out (03:48) - Eddie Clay

13) Waiting for Tomorrow (04:22) - Eddie Clay

14) I Count No Sheep (02:58) - Eddie Clay

[eddieclaysol]

The last three posts are videos that are in VR180 format. Meaning they are best viewed with a VR Headset. As mentioned in the youtube descriptions, these are experiments using my original songs to learn about this new medium, create content for it and have fun in an "open mic" way. The camera I'm using is a Vuze XR along with a Zoom H3-VR microphone. The video editor is Final Cut Pro (which has a huge learning curve), and the backing tracks are recorded and played using Logic Pro. The picture shows the Vuze camera (top) and H3 (bottom) configured on a small tripod (which I had to weigh down with some ankle weights). 

Vuze XR: https://vuze.camera/camera/vuze-xr-camera

  Zoom H3-VR:https://vuze.camera/camera/vuze-xr-camera

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Shades Of Gray - VR180 (VR 3D 180 degrees )

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God Willing (VR180)

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I Beseech You (VR180)

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Nov. 14, 1987

I can't remember exactly when. It was within a year before our actual wedding, Nov. 14, 1987 on the Queen Mary in Long Beach., I had bought a ring in DT San Francisco with Karen Keane's (now married to Duncan Harrod ) help. Thanks Karen, because before that, I never stepped inside a jewelry store in my life. Then I drove the 6 hour drive down to Huntington Beach from Silicon Valley. Told my parents what I was planning and they helped me make reservations at a favorite place of theirs, Maxwell's (on the pier). Before going to pick up Kelly for what I told her was just another special date, I went to the beach and triangulated a spot (based on light poles on the sand which are not there anymore), and buried a bottle of Dom Pérignon (no guts to bury the ring). I drove up Beach Blvd to her house in La Habra and asked her Mom if I could speak to her Dad alone. She was very concerned, but did allow me to do so. I said to him, "I'm going to proposed to Kelly, I hope you approve." He laughed, and said "This a great news." and we shook hands. Very formal, like a 1920's movie. Then Kelly appeared with her Mom, and they were a little concerned about me and Jim having a serious talk, but we didn't reveal anything. I probably said something like, "Kelly, your Dad doesn't approve of the music I play..." or some stupid joke to get her Mom laughing, which was easy to do. Anyway, Kelly and I drove back down to H.B. pier and had a great dinner at Maxwells (which is now Duke's). Afterwards we walked on the sand, under a bright clear moon-lit night, I guided her, and we sat down. Then I dug, and said, "what the heck is this?". I pulled out the bottle and gasped. She gasped and laughed, but kind of caught on to the joke. Then I pulled out the ring, and asked her. She said yes, so I said "ok good, in that case let's have some of this" and popped the cork. Then realized, "oh crap, I forgot the glasses!". If you haven't tried it, drinking Dom straight out of the bottle is an experience perfect for celebrating, the bubbles literally pour out out of your nostrils back into your mouth again. All the better when you can't control your laughter and happiness. And so on this day, 33 years ago, we got married. I love you Kelly Mitchell Weimer , always will, always have.

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Man On The Run

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Hello? Testing, 1,2,3

Just seeing what's alive and not.

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My Dad...

My father’s inurnment is today in a private ceremony. In Dad’s memory I have created a blog as I did for my Mom,

 claytonedwinweimer.wordpress.com/?order=asc 

for my friends… Cheers, Clayton Edward Weimer