Arash Zeini

I met Mohsen and family yesterday at my uncle’s house. It was like a good-bye meeting. They are moving to Canada. Many people were coming and going, just how it is in Iran. We talked a lot and had fun. As we were chatting our way through different subjects, he suggested that we help Bahram to make a climbing wall in Shirpala. In the summer a climbing wall in the winter an ice climbing wall. This is more than perfect. He wants to make a suggestion to Laico to do it.
But after I went home I decided to do it differently. I will help sponsoring the wall, dedicate it to my daughter and call it the “Amitis wall” or دیواره‌ی آمیتیس in Farsi.

Next Sunday Mohsen and Parisa are leaving for Canada. Well, I am happy for them to be able to leave after four years or so, but I am loosing my hiking partner. I was really looking forward to climbing Damavand with Mohsen, but that was not possible because of my knee pain. I enjoyed hiking with him a lot. I wish him and his family all the best. Have a safe trip to Canada! And don’t forget to hike.

Today I went hiking for a second time. It was great. Again 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down and no knee pain; the general condition was OK too. I should be able to resume my hikes to Shirpala soon, if it continues like this. Few Shirpala hikes, then from Shirpala to Tochal’s fifth station, should make me ready for Tochal. After two Tochals and one Sahand maybe, I should be ready for Damavand, if all is like it was before.
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In the beginning weeks of February 2003, while I was trying to climb a piece of rock in Darband, I felt some pain in my right knee, which gave me some trouble during the coming weeks. The pain was specially bad while I was in US for the events that followed that climb. It happened on the morning of February 7th 2003, as I went for a hike after I had taken Amitis and Megan to the airport.
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Yesterday I went to Davoud Azad’s concert. We were around 8 friends and all excited to see his performance. I find Azad had a great debut with his “Maktab-e taar-e tabriz” and his two immediate followups (”Aay ishighi” and “Noorbakhshe Jaan”) sounded nice and promising. But his research on Hormozi’s style of Setar playing and the resulting work did not introduce anything new and his musical quest showed a decline in content. I found his style always a bit too technical, without real meat, but thought and hoped it might improve. At times I even liked the dryness of his music.

Few weeks earlier I had read an interview with him, which made me really excited to see him perform life. Yesterday was that day and I really regret having been there. I do not want to sound sarcastic and I am for sure not a master of the Classical Iranian music, but as a long time listener and lover of this music, I think I can judge the music I listen too. There is not much left from Davoud Azad’s music. This whole concert was a repetition of one of his later works but without technical accuracy or good sounding instruments and interesting arrangements. Listening toHim pla hing the Tar was a torture and his Tanbour playing was even worse. It is sad to see that his technical abilities seem to go backward and that this gap is not filled in with warmth and passion. Warmth and passion are the least I expect from a Darwish. Should you be interested in this kind of music, Davoud Azad is the wrong person. He has not found an interesting mix between classical Iranian music and Darwish music. Let’s hope this will change and he will find back to his earlier style.