Music & Performance
J'ai Deux Amours
Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love
This cover of an old Josephine Baker classic is beautifully rendered. Stopped me in my tracks while walking through an old furniture store in San Francisco with the rain and cold outside. Your mileage on the rest of the CD might vary, but this one's worth the price.Paris Nights
Kevin Burke: Across the Black River
A Master Fiddler in his prime. Had a chance to see him at the Sebastopol Celtic Festival. Such a smooth and accomplished style - Listen to the Long Set or Paris Nights and you'll see what sets him apart.Amor Bonito
Various Artists (Lydia Mendoza): Tejano Roots: The Women (1946-1970)
In memory of a singer that had the same impact on me as Edith Piaf when I first heard her on an Arhoolie Records compilation of Tejano (music from the Texas-Mexico area). I adore her song Amor Bonito. Rest in peace...Sabelina
Susana Seivane: Susana Seivane
Music from Galecia - part of Spain with Celtic music influences. These are not your moody highland bagpipes (love those too) - think peppier, uptempo, energetic music. The tune Sabelina (an original composition) rivals the best Cuban beats for getting your feet moving. If you've ever rocked out to The Old Blind Dogs or Lunasa at a live concert - you will love this. http://www.susanaseivane.com/
Current Reading
John Kenneth Galbraith: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Whittle)
Dusted off this one from my library (an old Penguin imprint). Acquired some 30 years ago, last read around 1999. Still good as ever - short and to the point. Consider "Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" for an alternate. (****)Rodney Frost: Making Mad Toys & Mechanical Marvels in Wood
One of my collection on automata/kinetic scuplture/toys. Frost's work isn't as inspired as Paul Spooner but he's taken great pains to document kinetic toys and in this volume illustrates beautifully how to put some nifty kinetic toys/automata. Given the weather and my outdoor workshop, it'll be summer before I can experiment with some of the ideas but the sketches and designs will have to suffice till then. (***)Edward Hopper: Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work
One of my favorite artists and an old birthday gift that leaf through in quiet times. Quite instructive to see the process behind the master works in the sketches, the study, the notes and the deft hand that captures the essence. Reminds me of the journals in the Picasso Museum in Paris (reams and reams of them) that show how genius is really 99% perspiration. (****)Karen Armstrong: The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
Not perfect, but an illuminating book on a pivotal period in human history and the development of ideas that hold promise for our future.
Contact
Biography
About Rajiv (Personal)
The joy of living in Silicon Valley is that your adventures usually fall somewhere between serendipity and inspiration. I'm always interested in new ideas and enterprises. Drop me a line if I can be of help.
About Rajiv (Professional)
Rajiv is a Silicon Valley veteran who has played product development, engineering and operational roles at many valley companies over the last 20 years. His experience spans the creation and selling of software products into both enterprise and consumer segments over a wide range of technology. Rajiv's talents lie in understanding market trends and opportunities and in using these insights to guide teams in the creation of interesting products leading to successful businesses in roles ranging from senior executive to mentor and consultant.
Rajiv enjoys the critical early phases of formulation, formation, bootstrap and scale up of new businesses, particularly in the zero to seventy five million range. His experience covers many of the leading technology waves from AI, Objects, Operating Systems, to Digital Rights Management, ECommerce and Security. The breadth of this experience has given him insights into the dynamics of evolution of new technologies; markets, teams and how new ventures succeed or fail.
Rajiv's experience includes VP Strategy & Solutions at PGP Corporation where he works on M&A, strategic partnerships and technology strategy. He also spent four plus years as Vice President of Product Development & Operations at ValiCert (VLCT) (merged with TumbleWeed) and also held the office of Chief Technology Officer there. ValiCert was founded to provide secure electronic transaction products and services to the financial and banking markets, conceptually similar to the services provided by First Data to the credit card industry. He led the company through the startup phase as VP of Product Development and Operations from venture funding to a successful IPO. He saw the company through consistent growth and market mandated course corrections over the last four and a half years.
In his role at ValiCert, he was responsible for product definition, strategy, development, engineering and delivery of award winning security and cryptography related products and services. As V.P. of Operations for the ASP portion of ValiCert’s business, he built out a DoD quality secure data center in record time and scaled up the online services part of the business. He played a critical role in the selection, evangelism and closure of the first set of customers that set the pattern for the company’s growth leading to the IPO and for key customer relationships thereafter.
Rajiv is also highly experienced in the creation and operation of a global delivery model that utilizes outsourcing and offshore development for competitive advantage. Most recently, he set out a sustainable cost model for product development and services for ValiCert and built a strategic offshore development team that was been critical to the company’s success.
Prior to joining ValiCert, Rajiv was Vice President of Product Engineering at TestDrive, a startup providing digital-rights management technology for high-value content, including software. He also developed one of the premier white-label online retail software sites on the net. At VillageTree Inc., he provided coaching and consulting for Internet start-ups helping them develop business plans, incubate, troubleshoot and scale operations. Rajiv spent three years at Taligent Inc., a cross-platform applications framework company where as Director of Platform Products, he ran platform engineering including the OS runtime development and was also responsible for OEM relationships with IBM, Apple, HP and others. Rajiv also held senior engineering and managerial positions at Sun Microsystems in the Window Systems and Performance areas and at IntelliCorp, an AI pioneer where he developed AI and Object based products for rapid prototyping of agent and expert systems.
Contact information : Rajiv Dholakia - 650 424-8027 - rajiv can be found at villagetree.com
Interests
Science, Math, Puzzles Books Toys, Sculpture, Automata Music - Roots, Ethnic: Celtic, Bluegrass, West African
