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Welcome to Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** The Romans branded their capital Urbs Aeterna — the Eternal City — on the conviction that Rome would endure forever. Lovers harbor a similar optimism, believing their own destinies equally permanent and inextricably intertwined. It is precisely this assumption of permanence that Matt Taylor (played by the eminently charming Kevin James of King of Queens) sees shattered at the altar in Solo Mio, the latest film from Angel Studios, when his fiancée leaves him heartbroken and blindsided mid-wedding in the Italian capital. The ancient city serves as the rich and vibrant backdrop against which Taylor, mourning the untimely demise of his relationship, reluctantly proceeds with his honeymoon plans, unable to get a refund on such short notice. The absurdity of solo tandem bike rides and lonesome candlelit dinners soon piques the interest of fellow honeymooners on his tour: Julian (Kim Coates), now in his third marriage to the same woman (Alyson Hannigan, whose comedy talents are criminally underused in the film), and Neil (Jonathan Roumie), a newlywed married to a controlling therapist. Their eccentricities, presented as comic relief to help Taylor overcome his depressive rut, serve as a study of relationships, highlighting that there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. As Taylor catalogues his and his ex-fiancée’s many incompatibilities, he realizes his own mistake: “We were perfect — we never fought. So why aren’t we still together?” The film’s answer is that peace and pacifism are not necessarily proof of love or compatibility. Taylor recalls Paul Giamatti’s Miles in Sideways (2004): Both men travel through wine-country melancholy after romantic collapse. Yet where Miles retreats into bitterness and misanthropy, Taylor remains open and optimistic; he is visibly wounded but not cynical to the broader pursuit of engagement and having children. Among the triumphs of the screenplay, co-written with James and the Kinnane Brothers, is its ability to convey the belief that love and marriage are perennially meaningful and worth pursuing, even after enduring failure. That belief is manifested in a serendipitous encounter with Gia (Nicole Grimaudo), an extroverted café owner still recovering from her own betrayal by a habitual philanderer. They share an unmistakable chemistry. “It actually says zu-chero on my app, you see,” Taylor awkwardly tries to correct the Italian local’s pronunciation of zucchero (sugar), in an early scene together in her café. Wielding the warm and genial personality stereotypical of Italians, she draws him out of his comfort zone and teaches him to take risks. Beneath the banter, the ethos of Solo Mio posits that people are naturally drawn to relationships. None is without its complications or turbulence (and some are simply not meant to be, as in the case of Taylor’s first proposal), but finding love and starting a family requires risk and opening yourself up for failure. And that is something worth fighting for. Modern courtship, filtered through apps and optimization, seeks an imagined ideal partner and avoids emotional danger. The film argues the opposite: Love is inherently irrational and shouldn’t be curated like a playlist — a sentiment I can agree with, as someone who met his significant other on such an app. Even the film’s recurring musical motif, the great Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma” from “Turandot,” is about a prince who risks near-certain death to pursue a princess he loves. The film’s highlight comes when Gia invites Taylor to her family villa in Tuscany. Nestled among picturesque vineyards and verdant rolling hills, it is practically a tourism ad (and an effective one at that). Surrounded by Gia’s exuberant family, Taylor encounters Andrea Bocelli casually seated at the piano, in one of the better cameos I have seen to date. It is a testament to Kevin James’s lowbrow and lovable sensibilities that upon meeting the venerable tenor, his first instinct is to exclaim, “Wow, you must know Ed Sheeran!” Solo Mio is a refreshingly funny and heartwarming romantic comedy centered on genuinely decent people who know what they want and pursue marriage and family as life’s ultimate commitments, rather than the romantic ambiguity and sardonic indifference that so often suffuse the genre. It is a reminder that love is not made permanent because it never falters, but because we choose it again after it does. *** Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a software engineer, holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and writes about wine at BetweenBottles.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Sweetwater emerged from the vibrant, eclectic coffeehouse scene of Los Angeles in 1967, bringing together a group of musicians whose diverse backgrounds mirrored the melting pot of the era. The ensemble was composed of lead singer Nanci Nevins, cellist August Burns, flutist Albert Moore, keyboardist Alex Del Zoppo, bassist Fred Herrera, percussionist Elpidio Cobian, and drummer Alan Malarowitz. Their sound was a pioneering fusion of psychedelic rock, jazz, folk, and classical elements, which stood out even in the experimental atmosphere of the late sixties. By blending traditional rock instrumentation with the haunting textures of the flute and cello, they established The post Top 10 Sweetwater Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Hills wasn’t just a department store. It was toys, popcorn, Christmas magic, and family tradition. This deep dive explores its rise, its fall, and why generations still feel a powerful nostalgia for the place where memories were made. The post Remembering Hills Department Store appeared first on The Retro Network.

As a native New Yorker, I’m appalled to see what has become of my home state government. New York under Gov. Kathy Hochul has become a textbook case of failed blue state governance: bloated bureaucracy, rampant waste, and performative concern for working people while the institutions they depend on collapse. The rhetoric is far from the reality. Nowhere is that failure more visible than in how Albany handles Medicaid fraud with kid gloves while letting rural hospitals bleed out. A recent federal audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services exposed the depth of that mismanagement. Investigators found that nearly half of the $445 million paid to transport companies in New York City’s Non-Emergency Medical Transportation program during 2018-2019 was mishandled. The report documented unauthorized rides, unverified trips, unlicensed drivers, and services billed but never provided. Washington has ordered New York to repay $84 million immediately and placed another $112 million under review. The Hochul administration’s response has been little urgency, few reforms, and the same weak oversight culture that allowed hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to vanish in the first place. That failure has a direct human cost. The same administration that shrugged at Medicaid fraud is now slow-walking decisions that will determine whether rural hospitals live or die. Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and nearby Carthage Area Hospital have spent years working in good faith with state officials on a restructuring plan to keep their doors open. Instead of acting, Albany keeps requesting “more information”—the bureaucratic equivalent of running out the clock. Hospitals have warned they may not survive the winter. Local hospitals are not optional amenities. Growing up in Canton, my family relied on Claxton-Hepburn. It is the largest employer in the region, a cornerstone of economic stability, and for many patients their only access to care. When a rural hospital closes, expectant mothers travel hours for prenatal care. Cancer patients face interruptions in treatment. Nearly 1,700 health care workers face uncertainty about whether their employers can make payroll. And it is not just two hospitals. According to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, 58 percent of New York’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing. The Hochul administration has not treated this as a crisis. It has treated it as a talking point to acknowledge in press releases while the health department continues to be weaponized against the very institutions it is supposed to protect. This is the Hochul model, and it is sadly becoming the blue state model writ large: transfer wealth upward through waste and fraud, ignore the communities that can’t fight back, and dress it all up in the language of care and equity. Medicaid dollars flow freely to unverified vendors in New York City while rural hospitals beg Albany for a decision—any decision—that might let them survive another season. Pretending these problems don’t exist won’t make them disappear. If this trajectory continues, hospitals will close, communities will fracture, and New Yorkers outside the city will be left to conclude what many already suspect: that Albany was never looking out for them at all. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post New York’s Hochul Administration Coddles Medicaid Fraud While Attacking Rural Hospitals appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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