Since

the temperature is supposed to get to 75 degrees today, it appears I will be taking the bike out for the first time this year.

My bike, a Pinarello, is almost 20 years old and is still going strong. However, I'd like to get an updated bike and probably will get a new one in the next year or so after I get my trips all paid off.

I also put in an order for yet another silent film, one presumed lost, Beyond the Rocks (1922), which starred Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. This one was thought to be lost for decades until a copy surfaced in around 2000. It has been restored to close to its original length.

Silent film experts estimate anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of silent films are lost, many lost not just because of decomposition or fires, but some idiots in the studios thought the movies no longer had any commercial value, and these films were destroyed shortly after the arrival of sound. Talk about stupid. But early live television shows also suffered the same fate, so ignorance about film preservation continued until very recently.

Somewhere in the nearly 30,000 posts I have written I made reference to the excellent Frank Thompson book, Lost Films, which focused on important silent films that were presumed lost. The good news is that at least three of the films mentioned in the book, Purity (1916), Pied Piper Malone (1924), and The Rough Riders (1927) have been found in various archives, while part of a fourth, The Flaming Frontier (1926), has also been found. The 1927 version of Camille starring Norma Talmadge (mentioned in passing in the Thompson book) has been located as well though some parts are missing.

Let's hope more films are recovered.