Day 961: Pareidolia

My son Aaron, who has a very nice face, tells me that “Pareidolia” is the word for our tendency to see human faces where they do not exist.

For example, when I faced this car, yesterday, in Edinburgh, Scotland …

… it looked, to me, like it had a human face.

We probably see human faces, where they do not actually exist, as a way make the unfamiliar more reassuring.

It’s also reassuring to see actual human faces, especially if they look friendly.

That’s Joanna, who reassured us that the unfamiliar Scottish custom of including white AND pink marshmallows on hot chocolate was actually practiced widely across Europe.

That’s Fearghas, with whom we swapped recommendations about what shows to see at the Festival Fringe.

That’s one of the faces of the terrific improv group Men with Coconuts, whom we’ve faced several times this year and during the Festival Fringe in 2014.

One of the first friendly faces we saw in Edinburgh, when we arrived a week ago, was that of an imposing redhead, named Marc,  from an original play called STYX:

While there are SO MANY choices at the Festival Fringe, we knew we would eventually face STYX, because we kept seeing the faces of Marc and his fellow STYX performers on the streets of Edinburgh. Also, STYX has a really stand-out poster, which our faces have been seeing everywhere. AND, we’ve been facing these neat give-aways in our hotel room, since we first saw the STYX players’ faces:

So, yesterday, we finally faced STYX. Here are two familiar faces I saw, before the show:

Here are faces I saw on stage:

  
  
  
  


Those are the faces of some amazingly inventive comic actors. I also faced some ridiculous synchronicities with my life in that hilarious play, including :

• A character with heart problems,
• Several plot points involving a DEFIBRILLATOR (installed in a phone booth) and
• A woman hobbling around with a cane.

After we saw STYX, I took these photos of some friendly faces responsible for that fabulous and funny production:

      

Now,  please face another photo of faces that were on stage AND off stage at yesterday’s great performance of STYX:

There were a lot more faces I faced yesterday, in amazing and beautiful Edinburgh. Let’s see what faces you notice in these photos:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
That last photo includes the face of a performer my son Aaron and I have admired since last year’s Festival Fringe: Dr. Professor Neal Portenza,  who also faces the real word as Joshua Ladgrove.

  
There’s our friend Josh performing on a bus last night, facing another enthusiastic audience. Face it, my dear readers, it was great seeing Josh perform, especially since he asked if any of the people facing him on that bus were able to be in the moment and — when he noticed my face nodding “Yes” — he told the whole audience that he READS THIS BLOG.

You can just imagine my face, when he said that.

Well, we now need to face our last full day in Edinburgh, including an 11 AM performance by this beautiful face we saw on our first day here:

Because I need to get ready to face Sanctuary and the rest of the day, I am going to ask you to face a post here today without any videos. Perhaps somebody who faces this blog can provide some Pareidolia -appropriate music?

Thanks to all the faces that make my life worth living, including yours!