Published at 1:45 am. Updated at 8:00 a.m.
Cardinal Editions are on the rise these days with “Urbania 20,” a beautiful 300+ page book that traces the emergence of media to its diverse entities today, including a series of portraits that caused such a stir and what can I say about those covers (Gérald Tremblay, Michèle Richard, Richard Martineau and of course all those penises, remember?) that shocked the media universe and, above all, sold a lot of copies.
Fans of the paper magazine (which was digitized in 2020) are served here with numerous excerpts of transcribed texts, anecdotes behind several photos, interviews and other reports, as well as some juicy rumors (we won’t reveal everything, but for the photo of Arnaud Soly in bed alone, we say times that it is really worth it, the memory of the special edition “Ethnies” is a little less…). In 20 years, some things age better than others, and it seems…
“Varlop a little bit”
Tatiana Polevoy worked on the case for a year, interviewing more than 80 people who had worked closely or very widely with Urbania, from the founders (Philippe Lamarre and Vianney Tremblay, two elementary school friends!) to the most loyal but no less critical observers , including many employees (editors, photographers, illustrators). Here she offers a finished product in the style of her original, in terms of content, but above all in form, in terms of graphics, optics, even sound, a little “sloppy”, as she herself admits.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Tatiana Polevoy
Urbania deserves to be pushed around a bit! How Urbania has attracted so many people!
Tatiana Polevoy, journalist
The journalist, columnist and now author has made it her mission not to be complacent and to take a “critical look at a single object”. And that’s exactly what it does – and we understand between the branches that it didn’t just make people happy, that’s certainly part of the game – by following its founder Philippe Lamarre from start to finish to understand: “What have you made concrete?” mean? »
“Urbania has always fascinated me,” she explains. I had many prejudices about this media and cultural object. » Like, no doubt, many outside readers: “I’ve seen a bunch of people making each other laugh and thinking they’re cool, and I’ve always asked myself the question: Are they laughing at the world or are they laughing with the world ?” »
IMAGE PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER
Late one evening in 2004 in the studios where the magazine was born, on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Employees from the very beginning have gathered around the founder Philippe Lamarre.
An answer that the reader will certainly come up with when browsing through this extensive work and which she skillfully summarizes: “I didn’t come to the conclusion that they didn’t think they were so cool or that they didn’t laugh at the world, she said, but I came to the conclusion that at the media end of the spectrum it happened in a good-natured way, with lots of coincidences, often… after 43 beers and too much Red Bull! »
It’s a plane in mid-flight, retarded teenagers, on a kitchen table!
Tatiana Polevoy
The little stories behind the big headlines say a lot. In particular, we learn that the photo of Gérald Tremblay’s armpits was a montage and that Passe-Montagne never consented to the publication of Passe-Carreau’s kiss. The photo is not the result of great thought at all, but rather a coincidence.
Undoubtedly, we have attributed too many intentions to Urbania, say, given all these memories that illustrate the extent to which the container was capable of taking over the contents.
In retrospect, Tatiana Polevoy even wonders whether her famous question to Philippe Lamarre was ultimately the right one. Instead of trying to “say something,” maybe the founder has been trying to “do something” for 20 years? She suggests. “I think they’re trying to be disruptive.” And the Duhaime affair is the culmination of all that…”
One of the media’s worst moves is this controversial, to say the least, passage from the current leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec as a columnist, the specifics of which are recounted here in the book (basically: a chance meeting, a good joint, an invitation, on a whim out, and the “internal crisis” that followed). A case that certainly made it possible to test the limits of Urbania, but not only that.
[Tester les limites], note where your media is, who you work with, and in public. Your audience!
Tatiana Polevoy
Calmed down
Speaking of boundaries: does Urbania really still exceed them today? What remains of the drooling media of yesterday that seemed afraid of nothing? Many ask this question, including former editor-in-chief Catherine Perreault-Lessard, who is quoted in the book: “Urbania’s biggest flaw is that it is woke.” » Has the beast (remember that the symbol of the magazine a Dog is actually calmed down, as the cover beautifully reminds us? Tatiana Polevoy doesn’t see it that way: “I wouldn’t say that Urbania has calmed down,” she adds. Today we tend to talk more about kindness, but 20 years ago this concept was not yet fashionable. 20 years ago it was all about the gag. »
This is no longer the case today. Let’s just say we don’t laugh at stuff like that anymore. “We treat people more consciously. » And today’s young employees make that clear. “I would say that society has changed more than Urbania! »
Urbania 20
cardinal
300 pages