Inner City Ninja Life

I lived with Owen for a year in Vancouver. He loved ninjas, breakdancing and yoga. Every morning we would have "Power Morning" sessions, which was a healthy breakfast, some yoga, and then a quick break jam in our kitchen. I remember one time he was stretching when the phone rang. He casually got up and answered it. Owen's Boss: "What are you doing, you're 20 minutes late for work!" Owen: "Yeah, well I'm not done stretching, so I'll be a little while still."

At night we would go this place called Ninja Roof. It was a roof over-hang on top of a school that looked out above downtown. We always brought big jars of tea and doobs. And we would rap.
One day Owen came home and told me he just bought a 1979 VW Rabbit that he had ripped the back seat out of and replaced with a bed. He was going to drive from Vancouver to Toronto and then live in the car. He did this. And he lived in the car for over a year. Owen is a rad dude, and also loves fantasy pictures of wolves.
Here is a bit of an article he wrote for a yoga magazine.

Learning to Park
breakdancer/yogi owen robertson transforms his vw rabbit into a hermit’s refuge in the middle of the city
excerpted from the print magazine…
A few years ago, I bought a maroon ’79 Volkswagon Rabbit in Vancouver for $400 with the explicit purpose of driving it to Toronto and living in it. I wasn’t running from the law or hounded by poverty. I made this decision willingly, and look back upon those days with extreme fondness.

I can trace the dream back to high school when I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac. The part where Sal visits Carlo Marx at his hut in the mountains inspired me. The simple elegance of living with essentially only books and rice as one’s possessions appealed to me on many levels, ranging from my spiritual fervor all the way down to my Scots thriftiness, or “cheapness” if you will. Other inspirations were provided by Thoreau’s Walden, as well as all the monks, nuns, wise hermits, since the dawn of time, that secluded themselves for spiritual purposes.

Yoga teaches us to see things in their essence, and a car is really just a hut on wheels. So when I tell people that I lived in a car, and they get all worried about me, what they fail to understand is that I was taking part in an ancient and noble tradition. That being said, I must admit that there was another side to my motivation. I was on a quest for self-healing, and felt that doctors could not help me …

I know Owen would love this video.