@Strathmore With Violin Virtuoso Zoltan Maga

Nice time today at Strathmore Concert Hall. 

Listened to beautiful music by Violin Virtuoso Zoltan Maga and The Budapest Gypsy Orchestra.

Zoltan was amazing and he played the violin with expertise that I have rarely seen in my life.

It was as of the violin literally came alive in his hands.

His son, Zoltan, Jr. also played wonderfully and seems to be a “chip off the old block.”

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Zoltan and the orchestra play a pretty mean Hava Nagillah!

Also, the Hungarian Ambassador was there to welcome Zoltan. 

It was beautiful at the end when they told how Zoltan does many charity concerts and donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to needy orphan homes. 

I shook Zoltan’s hand, but I could tell he was very protective of his magic hands.

Truly, he is a master and you can see the skill from Hashem in him–it was amazing. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy and Dossy Blumenthal)

Computer Luminaries

I wanted to share these photo that I took at Micro Center, a computer and electronics store, outside Washington DC. 

On the wall are these pretty awesome photos of many of the founders and inventors behind modern-day computing. 

1) Doug Englebart – the GUI and Mouse

2) Dennis Ritchie – C and Unix

3-4) Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston – Visicalc and Spreadsheets

5-6) Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard – HP 

7) Gordon Moore – Intel

8) Grace Hopper – First compiler that led to development of COBOL

9-10) Robert Khan and Vinton Cerf – TCP/IP

11) Steve Wozniak – Apple I and II

Of course, the following deserve a place of the wall of fame as well:

12) Steve Jobs – Apple

13) Bill Gates – Microsoft

14-15) Larry Paige and Sergey Brin – Google

16) Jeff Bezos – Amazon 

17) Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook

On one hand, these are people like you and I, who live, feel joy and pain, and one day die. In the end, we’re all just flesh and blood, plus a soul that is our moral compass. 

But on the other hand, G-d has given some people special gifts to pass to mankind, like a master painter, musician, inventor, or holy person, whose worldly works are as near to G-dly as perhaps we can get outside of Heaven itself.

G-d must have a plan for us as he sends us these people–or more like angels–to guide our development and our destiny. 

Whatever G-d wants from us, we’re definitely on a course to get there and that is comforting and a ray of hope for all of us. 😉

(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)