iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Today's NYT: no Trump headline, he only appears once you scroll past the top block. Trump feeds on attention, his politics chase coverage, not reason. Any mention, even critical, knights him. Media enabling him resembles friends "understanding" an addict. Germany's AfD debate hits the same trap.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Northern lights dancing above Bremerhaven, Germany.A rare glow over the North Sea. The Sun clearly had a busy day.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Jan 16, 2026. From a European perspective, the New York Times opinion page reads like a warning system stuck on repeat. The alarming part isn’t the criticism, it’s how normal it feels now. What’s happening in the U.S.?

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Bremerhaven. We’re not really used to this much snow on the North Sea coast. But even all that asphalt looks better when it’s white.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Happy New Year 2026 from Bremerhaven, on Germany’s North Sea coast!

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Na ja, Hellgrau, Dunkelgrau, Blaugrau.........

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Morning from #Bremerhaven, Germany – North Sea coast.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Small break! Coffee on the table, Motown in my ears, Spirou & Fantasio open. And I’m wondering: what would the Marsupilami have done with Trump? Something to think about…

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Bremerhaven this morning — blue hour, heavy clouds, a sweep of snow. The coast in all its moods at once.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

On the turntable: Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. Just arrived — simply genius.

A vinyl record of Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section on a modern turntable, with the album cover

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

The second storm of the season here on the North Sea coast at Bremerhaven. So far, everything’s still fine — but as the sea keeps warming, we’ll have to get used to a very different kind of storm.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

The little bike shop in #Paris feels like a symbol of a city that has reinvented itself.

A bright yellow bicycle shop in Paris with bikes displayed inside and the sign “Velo Yellow” above the entrance.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

A cornerstone of my project: rebuilding my old record collection. Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – an album that still speaks across generations. “Teach Your Children” feels more urgent today than ever.

A vinyl record spins on a turntable beside the Déjà Vu album cover.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Some records stay with you for a lifetime. Among all the rock, blues, and heavy stuff — @carolekingofficial.bsky.social Carol King’s Tapestry is one of them. The MOFI edition sounds simply beautiful.

A vinyl record of Carole King’s Tapestry spinning on a turntable, with the album cover showing Carole King sitting by a window with her cat.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

The leaves are saying goodbye. Golden summer on the balcony

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

A short reflection on fear, empathy, and what happens when machines start mirroring the people who built them.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Rain outside, coffee inside, and Jazz Samba spinning. Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd — pure sunshine on a grey morning.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Early John Mayall — the roots of British blues. I had the honour to hear him live years later in my old hometown Münster — the grand seigneur of the blues. A truly formative experience.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Spinning Led Zeppelin IV tonight — Black Dog and Stairway to Heaven, the songs everyone connects with Zeppelin. Beth Hart’s cover of Black Dog still gives me chills. Pure vinyl magic.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Friday night — a drone over Bremerhaven’s harbor. It had position lights, so probably not Putin. Still, that uneasy feeling stays. It didn’t belong there. We live in frightening times.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

A visit to my old hometown Münster. Eduardo Chillida’s benches recall the Peace of Westphalia — peace through dialogue. 377 years later, Putin and Trump show how fragile that idea still is.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Picked up some essentials today in my old hometown Münster at Green Hell Records: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon 50th anniversary edition and Led Zeppelin IV on vinyl. True bread-and-butter staples for any collection.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

The tall ship ALEX II in the "Neuer Hafen" in Bremerhaven. Sky and ship — everything just right for a Friday evening on the coast.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

This morning’s NYT: On top, “the world has soured on climate politics.” Just below, “thousands of extra deaths from extreme heat.” How do you square that? Madness. Absolute madness.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

No, that’s not cruise ship exhaust — just an odd cloud formation.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Two new additions: Harvest by Neil Young and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Originals are either aging or almost impossible to find at record fairs—no one parts with them, even if they no longer play them. The reissues, however, are excellent and probably better than any older repress.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

The Peace of Westphalia (1648) set the rule: peace only works if borders and sovereignty are respected. Hitler broke it, Putin breaks it again. 377 years later, the lesson still stands.

Münster, Feier zum Westfälischen Frieden 2023

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

The bicycle has become a synonym for Paris. A few years ago people would have laughed – today no one does. Paris has become a model of what is possible

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

1/3 In front of my door: cruise giants like Disney Adventure. With crew nearly 13,000 people – more than 10% of Bremerhaven, my hometown. Gigantic, and hard to grasp in the middle of a climate crisis.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

(1/7) Record fair find: The Velvet Underground & Nico – early reissue with the famous banana (not peelable, that would be priceless).

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Copenhagen may be the luxury edition of a cycling city. But Paris proves that even a car-dominated city can be transformed radically in just a few years. City leaders elsewhere should take note – and stop pretending it can’t be done.“

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Sunny morning on the German North Sea coast. Blood moon edition? Building, clouds, sleep.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

„Vinyl fair find today: Ashes Are Burning by Renaissance. Probably little known in Germany and even in the US – yet one of my favorite albums. Especially At the Harbour is a highlight.“

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Moin from Bremerhaven. Two cruise ships in the back: one still reasonable, the other a floating concrete block. Bremerhaven calls itself a climate city, yet courts the giants. This contradiction runs through climate policy – and may cost us dearly.”

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Who’s Next — since my original went missing and I couldn’t get hold of an early pressing, I went for the Abbey Road Studios edition. Pretty close to the original!

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

A sunny morning in my hometown Bremerhaven on Germany’s North Sea coast.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Just today’s NYT headlines read like blueprints for a Trump fortress in D.C. — police under control, National Guard armed, justice twisted. From Germany it feels like democracy is being walled in.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Perfect rainy Saturday morning on the North Sea coast: Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On – best LP ever – and Batman: Hush, the best comic. That’s all you need.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

A realization after returning to vinyl: pure music. No playlists, no updates, no notifications. And no voice assistant mistaking every attempt at singing for a command. I’d missed that. Strange how distorted our relationship with music has become today.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Morning in Bremerhaven – the Sagres II and SHABAB OMAN II at the tall ship festival, a meeting of majestic vessels and their international crews in my hometown, Bremerhaven, Germany.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

SAIL 2025 in My Hometown Bremerhaven, Germany – Day 1 at the "Neuer Hafen". Tall Ships Parade!

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Bremerhaven in the early morning – here, the blue hour belongs to the dawn. The city stretches in the first light, people and ships already on their way, while somewhere a politician is still dreaming of the big breakthrough. Let’s just let him sleep a little longer – it’s peaceful enough as it is.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

After WWII, the U.S. helped feed a defeated Germany even with Nazis still around. My mother was a teen. A Black GI gave her chocolate. She’d been told, it was poisoned. It wasn’t. It changed her life and sparked a lifelong love for America. Gaza needs that kind of mercy. That’s how peace begins.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Bought a turntable. Came full circle: cassette, CD, MP3, streaming... Turns out, the perfect format was in my hands all along. Digital cuts corners — vinyl keeps the soul.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

It’s been raining endlessly here in Germany — but honestly, what’s the problem? The air is fresh, the lush greenery soothes the soul, and everything feels alive. Just step outside and enjoy it!

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Getting tired of all the podcasts? Sure, they’re fine on a dog walk — though silence wouldn’t hurt either. But reading shouldn’t go out of style. It’s not just about consuming content. It’s about thinking for yourself.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

While many German cities are stuck in endless debates and PowerPoint slides, Paris is reclaiming space from cars and giving it back to people. Real urban change starts with a vision — not excuses.

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Leider fehlt Münster. Die Stadt ist ein schönes Beispiel wie Alltagsradler, keine Highend Radler mit Rüstung, eine Stadt verändern können. Die Stadt hat jetzt nachgezogen. Erwartet nichts von oben, die Veränderung braucht eine kritische Masse!

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Ralf Ekrowski @ralfekrowski.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Somewhere near Münster, Germany Just a short walk. And then this. We know what’s at stake. And still—we keep destroying it.

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