bri's brain goo: the breath of badlands booker

By bri robinson

Eric “Badlands” Booker’s Youtube intro depicts him chugging the world, one bottle at a time.

Hello Gigabytes, 

I’m unsure if the format of this will always be so formal, but this is the inaugural publication of Bri’s Brain Goo. Here I will be rambling about things that I am thinking about: blackness, the world wide web, the nexus, nigga I don’t know. 

The purpose of my brain goo is purely cathartic, I am declogging my brain in yet another digital echo chamber, and some will probably enjoy it. Is it giving Carrie Bradshaw of Color? Does it inspire and simultaneously frighten the hoes? Is it subversive in any fashion or is it just another signifier that early childhood internet access should be monitored very closely and intentionally? Who's to say! 

I’m rounding out the end of a two week analysis. Well not really, but, “fuck around and find out” is the basis of a lot of good qualitative research. Nearly every day of the last two weeks, I’ve watched a video of Eric “Badlands'' Booker, a competitive eater, consuming a LOT of liquids in a very short amount of time. 

Here, we witness Badlands’ true power as he conquers an entire water cooler. 

On his youtube channel BADLANDSCHUGS, Booker notes his devotion to is to “chug the world, one bottle at a time.” He started his career as a competitive eater at the age of 20 and launched his own youtube channel in September of 2012. He’s reached many milestones throughout his career, in May 2021, he set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to drink two liters of soda (18.45 seconds!) In June of 2021, he surpassed 3 million followers on Youtube. Presently, he posts just about every two days. There are many ways this blog could go, but within the scope of brain goo and spirituality itself, I cannot help wondering if this nigga is unconsciously doing breathwork. 

Breathwork is the practice of regulating the body through the breath. I think most people consider it a spiritual practice as it creates a sense of openness and connection to the physical body through a deep presence of one's breathing

How beautiful the face of victory can be. Here, Booker has completed a chug of 2L of Irn Bru in under 30 seconds.

Going back to BADLANDCHUGS, each video begins with an introduction by Booker, often an ad for a specific men’s shaving product, or a rap song. As an artist in his own right Mr. Chugs has ten mixtapes including Hungry & Focused Volumes 1-4. (Volume 3 has the best cover art, in my opinion).

Booker then informs viewers the purpose of this particular ingestion (he does sparkling water chugs on Wednesdays just FYI), tells a story or two with lots of passion about his craft, and then takes a tremendous  deep breath as he proceeds to chug. The most captivating portion of these videos is the silence. Viewers are met with empty air and the space to ponder “Is that nigga really gonna drink all of that?”, or even an,“Why is he doing this?” and eventually some of their questions fall to, “How could someone be so charismatic and talented, wow what skill!?”

But truly, my main inquiry is does Eric Booker know? Is he aware of how magnificent the space between air and water is? And is it, dare I say, intentional?

Wow, he is really chugging the whole world! Look at Badlands go!

The other day, I was watching him with someone and they asked me if I could speak with THEEEE Badlands Chugs what would I talk to him about? 

I took a second before thinking. Certainly I’d ask about his virality and how Booker navigates the internet as charmingly as he does. Sure, I'd dig deep and quiz him on how Blackness and fatphobia exist in the major league eating sport, and if this impacts him on the daily. But mainly I just need to know if he’s doing breathwork! 

I think my curiosity surrounding whether or not Badlands is conducting a form of breathwork within his participation in this sport (some would call it an artform) comes from a desire for poetic reasoning. Each chug begins with a deep breath, a supple silence and ends by a deep exhale (and often a powerful belch). Perhaps I’m thinking of things too symbolically, as I witnessed the control and power it requires to take in so much I recognized the eb and flow of Badlands’ practice, there’s a synchronicity between such and our lives - just like the ending of a Youtube video. 

And finally, you can bear witness to Eric Booker chugging with ease on his Youtube channel, BADLANDSCHUGS