Freeman's Pop Culture Auction

Joe Osborne geeks out

by Joe Osborne

Nostalgia has a surprisingly gripping effect. For geeks like us, the annals of classic, cerebral sci-fi and the superheroes that taught us right from wrong are ingrained in our self-images. Freeman's Auction House draws from all walks of pop-culture life to please a plethora of nerds — from photos of Golden Era film stars to mouth-watering amounts of classic rock memorabilia.

There are highlights aplenty, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's torn leather jacket from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (pictured, below), which the Guv used to fight off the shape-shifting T-1000 while simultaneously harkening to the bike-bound bad-asses of movies like The Wild One. Also up for grabs: the original script for Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's provocative epic that toyed with the future possibilities of cybernetics.

"You never really know from the outset what necessarily will come in, but you have a direction. The T2 jacket and Blade Runner script were two pieces from private collections which were presented to me," says Freeman's pop culture department head Simeon Lipman. "You never really know from the outset what necessarily will come in, but you have a direction."

But the sheer joy of being under the same roof as a signed picture of Burt Ward and Adam West as Batman and Robin isn't what's important. According to Lipman, what matters most is recognizing the contemporary art that was born of the culture at the time.

Fri., Sept 3, noon., free, 1808 Chestnut St., 215-563-9275, freemansauction.com.

(editorial@citypaper.net)