Longreads

For this week's Member Pick, we're thrilled to share the first chapter of Drew Magary's new memoir on fatherhood, Someone Could Get Hurt  (Gotham Books). Magary, who writes for  Deadspin and  GQ, has been  featured on Longreads many times in the past, and he explained how his latest book came together.

This week's picks include pieces from Allie Brosh, The Believer, Miami New Times, GQ, The New Yorker, fiction from Guernica and a guest pick by Michael Macher.

What happened when the village of Sodeto won the largest lottery in the history of Spain:

"Ana, the Romanian, picks up the ringing phone. 'Mommy,' says her daughter, 'apparently the Gordo was won in Grañén,' and Ana says, 'Is this a joke?' She looks out the window and sees her friend Lolita in her pajamas, running to the mayor's house, and she sticks her head out, and Lolita screams, 'WE WON THE GORDO!'

"'How much?' asks Ana reflexively, and her friend says a number in pesetas, and Ana yells, 'Tell me so I can understand!'

"'One hundred thousand euros per ticket,' she shouts.

"And Ana, in shock, races down to the bar. She remembers putting her ticket under the cash register, and where is it, and...

"There it is!

"Her mouth opens, but nothing comes out."

A profile of Tim Bergling, a 23-year-old Swede who has risen to fame as a DJ the club scene as Avicii:

"Another black car to another greenroom, another show: The Lights All Night festival is a blur of kids in Fun Fur and neon going, 'Are you rolling?,' mesmerizing one another with light-up gloves. Tim has never taken the Drug Formerly Known As Ecstasy, which is sort of odd since MDMA is to EDM what cocaine was to disco. 'I mean, I want to take it,' he says the next day, eating a layover hamburger on the way to Vegas. 'But I'm sort of afraid of anything that makes you feel out of control.' Even though the kids in Dallas are his age, it's hard to imagine him among them crowd-surfing in a neon tankini. 'Yeah, I kind of missed all that,' he says. 'Because when I was 18, I couldn't go out, and then when I could go out...' he trails off. "'He gets mobbed,' Felix says."

The Friday Night Lights author on his shopping addiction:

"I own forty-three pieces of Gucci—twelve leather jackets, six evening jackets, five pairs of pants, six pairs of boots, four shirts, seven pairs of gloves, and three scarves. I own items from Acne, Affliction, Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, Balmain, Band of Outsiders, Belstaff, Bottega Veneta, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Chanel, Charles David, Diane von Furstenberg, Helmut Lang, Ines, Jan Hilmer, J.Crew, Jimmy Choo, Jitrois, Jos. A. Bank, Joseph, Junker Designs, Loewe, Lucchese, Marc Jacobs, Mr. S Leather, Nike, Northbound Leather, Prada, Rag & Bone, Ralph Lauren, Roberto Cavalli, Saint Laurent, 7 For All Mankind, Thomas Wylde, Valentino, Versace, and Wesco. I also have had several pieces custom-made for me by an amazing designer named Carla Dawn Behrle, who specializes in leather; they're worth every penny and more, given her fastidiousness and attention to detail. I apologize to those letters of the alphabet I have not gotten to yet. Zara, don't give up hope."

This week's Longreads Member Pick is the first chapter from the best-selling memoir After Visiting Friends, GQ deputy editor Michael Hainey's story of his father's death and his search for answers. Hainey was 6 years old when his father, newspaperman Bob Hainey, died suddenly, but questions remained about the circumstances around his death. 

We're proud to feature the book. Thanks to Michael and Scribner for sharing this story.

Support Longreads—and get more stories like this—by becoming a member for just $3 per month.

This week, we're thrilled to feature Jason Zengerle, a contributing editor for New York magazine and GQ  who has been featured on Longreads  many times. Our Member Pick is Jason's 1997 story on Michael Moore for Might magazine: "Is This Man the Last, Best Hope for Popular Liberalism in America? And, More Importantly, Does He Have a Sense of Humor?"

Support Longreads—and get more stories like this—by becoming a member for just $3 per month.

[Not single-page] A son and his father take a trip together to Burning Man:

I return to the safety of the RV after several hours roving the playa. My father is MIA. I picture him on a gurney, succumbing to a bronchial attack. Maybe lost in a dust storm, pedaling out into the desert's lethal infinitude. Close to dinnertime, he returns, and in the manner of some nagging spouse, I commence to chew his ass. 'Where the hell did you go?'

He shoots me a blank and rather guilty look. 'James and I went to the Naked Tiki Bar,' he says.

'You got naked?'

'I certainly did,' he says. 'It was a remarkably friendly place. And I actually found it very liberating to see these enormously fat women being perfectly willing to bare everything. It was fun to see all of that voluptuality. What did you discover?'

[Not single-page] Anthony Wayne Smith, a former defensive end for the L.A./Oakland Raiders, has been linked to the murders of four men:

"Soon after retiring from football, Anthony invested in at least one shady business—an online medical-billing scam that was later investigated by the FTC—and started spending more and more time with gangbangers and thugs. 'He was bringing the edge around, and I didn't like it,' Bryan says. When he asked Anthony why, Anthony told him, 'These guys care about me. They're genuine dudes.'

"'I couldn't understand it,' Bryan says. 'You're married to a lawyer. You're living in Playa del Rey. Why would you be involved with these kinds of people?' He began to back away, unhappily, because he felt like now he was abandoning Anthony, too. Dwayne Simon didn't like Anthony's new friends, either. 'That's when I stopped hanging around,' he says. 'That's when he started to change. He got that scowl, that ugly look.'"