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Weather: Cloudy. A chance of showers in the morning, then showers in the afternoon. More humid with highs in the lower 70s. Temperature falling into the upper 60s in the afternoon. South winds around 5 mph, becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of rain 80 percent. Wednesday Night: Cloudy. A chance of showers in the evening. Lows in the upper 40s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Flagler County Contractor Review Board meets at 5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Staff liaison is Bo Snowden, Chief Building Official, who may be reached at (386) 313-4027. For agendas and details go here.
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting at 9 a.m., first floor Conference Room, at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The Technical Review Committee (TRC) is a quality control committee that provides technical review of project plans. Staff Liaison is Gina Lemon, 386-313-4067.
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. The board is taking on proposed changes–and relaxation of–house-paint color rules.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
Notably: Can you spot the copyright infringement in the picture above? We passed by the gallery, closed by then, on a street in DeLand last Saturday (the place appears to be called Art Studio 308, not to be confused with the address, which is 122 East Rich Avenue). The charcoalish version of Afghan Girl, as National Geographic’s most iconic cover has (terribly) come to be known, caught my attention. It looked more like a refugee ghost from a Henry James story (you can’t blame his characters from wanting to bail from his asphyxiating pages) than the “girl” herself, whose portrait by Steve McCurry near Peshawar, in Pakistan, in 1984, played on the green of her eyes (the color of hope) and the green peeking through the rips in her crimson kamiz, and that haunted look of fear, just fear. It is unpleasant to read the account of the photograph’s creation, because it is a reflection of imperiousness: From The Wire: “McCurry was a complete stranger, and it is not welcome for a girl of traditional Pashtun culture to reveal her face, share space, make eye contact and be photographed by a man who does not belong to her family. For the photograph, she had been moved to a different location with better light and a clean background. When McCurry entered, he spotted Sharbat Gula’s piercing green eyes, though she made an effort to cover her face. McCurry asked her class teacher to instruct her to cooperate. After being compelled to “let him photograph her… she lowered her hands” – in McCurry’s own words – to uncover her face.” So she had not been pleased to be photographed. She had not wanted to be photographed. It was a violation of sorts. It hasn’t stopped. McCurry hasn’t stopped. (See the video below.) She was later identified as Sharbat Gula, because we can never leave well enough alone. McCurry kept trying to find her on subsequent trips and did in 2002, when she was 30. After using her image for marketing worth tens of millions of dollars, National Geographic paid some of her family’s medical bills and for a pilgrimage to Mecca. She left Afghanistan for Italy in 2021. Imagine her walking down a street in DeLand, maybe with her own children or grandchildren, and seeing that piece staring back at her. I did not see much art in it, though art might have redeemed what I saw: another violation, aged and unforgiving.
—P.T.
Now this:
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
January 2025
Monday, Jan 13 – Monday, Oct 13
Flagler County Commission Workshop
Government Services Building
February 2025
Wednesday, Feb 19
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Government Services Building
Wednesday, Feb 19
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Government Services Building
Wednesday, Feb 19
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
Wednesday, Feb 19
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Wednesday, Feb 19
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Public Library
Wednesday, Feb 19
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
Thursday, Feb 20
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Flagler County courthouse
Thursday, Feb 20
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library
315 South 7th Street, Flagler Beach
Thursday, Feb 20
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Sandra Baer
Thursday, Feb 20
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Central Park in Town Center
Thursday, Feb 20
Workshop on Establishment of an Erosion Control Line in Flagler
Government Services Building
Thursday, Feb 20
Town of Marineland Commission Meeting
GTM Research RESERVE Marineland Field Office
Thursday, Feb 20
Freedom to Read: Defending Book Access In Public Schools
Universal Unitarian Congregation
Thursday, Feb 20
‘The Niceties,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre
City Repertory Theatre at City Marketplace
No event found!
For the full calendar, go here.
“He poses her like an 80s’ glamour shot,” Northrup observes: “shoulder tilted towards the camera, forehead forward, nice light to illuminate the eyes and direct eye contact – something that she would never ever do.” McCurry wanted to take more pictures but Sharbat Gula fled. No part of the written story mentioned her narrative or even her name (which McCurry did not care to find out). He did not take her consent or her father’s to publish the image. When Sharbat Gula finally saw the cover that would make her face world-famous, she felt, she later said, “nervous and very sad”. When the photograph was first published in 1985 and the magazine circulated to millions of readers worldwide, it had only one sentence about her (besides the original caption, ‘Haunted eyes tell of an Afghan refugee’s fears’). It said her eyes were “reflecting the fear of war”. This is false, Northrup says. The fear in her eyes is that of a student interrupted at school by a male stranger invading her space, her personal boundaries and her culture and leaving without even having learned her name. McCurry and National Geographic would sell the picture for enormous amounts. Steve McCurry Studios prices their open edition 20″ x 24″ print of Sharbat Gula for $18,000 (Rs 12.8 lakh). Larger prints have been sold for as much as $178,900 at auctions. Until their return for the follow-up story in 2002, Sharbat Gula received nothing.
–From Ribhu and Raghu Karnad’s “You’ll Never See the Iconic Photo of the ‘Afghan Girl’ the Same Way Again,” The Wire, March 12, 2019.
The Cartoon and Live Briefing Archive.
