Cuilionn - Sorry I didn't post both places to double you work to respond. :)

Thanks for an excellent response. Yes organic, nice description for face to face music, poems and stories.

I've not a great reader in the field of sociology but came across the concept of primary and secondary culture. My limited understanding is primary culture is fundamentaly face to face and secondary culture is more remote. So a ceilidh is primary culture and a MTV is secondary. Primary culture is very powerful and we need to foster it as much as possible, especially as it is owned by the people taking part and not susceptible to being usurped by anonymous corporations and governments.

Keep fighting to maintain ceilidh, singround, session, jam, kitchen party, song circle, open mic, etc.

In the UK the purveyors of secondary culture are successfully using the government to make it harder and harder for primary culture. Witness the licensing act which heavily favours recorded music and large audience performances.