Jonn Nubian’s wide-ranging interview with A Martinez, now starring in the Netflix series Cowboy Bebop, travels from John Wayne to the “space western about bounty hunters,” heading up YRB’s spring issue. Nubian is Editor-in-Chief, snagging one fascinating interview after another.

by David Stone

The Roosevelt Island Daily News

“Getting out the Spring print issue has been a hassle,” Nubian told The Daily, but not because of the content. Instead, it was “a paper shortage and the increase in gas prices.”

YRB (Yellow Red Blue) is a lifestyle and entertainment magazine. It covers topics such as music, fashion, film, TV and art. The magazine started as a retail catalog before evolving into a national print magazine in 1999. Today, it has a circulation of over 200,000 copies and is read by millions of people every month. YRB magazine is headquartered in New York City.

A Martinez Long, Still Dynamic Career

Martinez’s earliest days on film included lucking into a part in The Cowboys, starring John Wayne and released in 1972. The intriguing part of that story is Wayne’s blatant racism. “I believe in white supremacy,” he said in a May, 1971, Playboy interview.

• A Big RIOC Scandal Resonates Now. Remember Fernando Martinez?
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• Birth of the Cool, Miles Davis
• PSO Corey Fischer Finally Gets A Promised Memorial

But A Martinez’s journey through many avenues – from John Wayne to playing Stax, the Syndicate Capo, in Cowboy Bebop – that makes for a great ride. With his laid back but deeply aware style, Nubian talks shop with the star in A Martinez on Ambulance, Cowboy Bebop, John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Michael Bay and the miracle of Big breaks.

Nothing I can add here does this great read enough justice. But you can read it and more in the spring issue of YRB, lead by Roosevelt Islander Jonn Nubian.

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Featured

What the Promenade Remembers

A morning walk, a small act, and the quiet difference between what we notice and what we leave behind.

Eleanor Rivers Jun 12, 2026

The light on the East River in the early morning is different from the light anywhere else on the Island. It comes in low and sideways, catching the water in long, uneven flashes. On certain days it makes the promenade feel less like a walkway and more like a corridor someone once meant to finish but never quite did. When I was younger I found the suggestion to stop and look at it faintly ridiculous.

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