Toronto’s The REMIX Project has put together an awesome Valentine’s Day fundraising campaign that you should jump on for that last minute gift idea. Drake’s DJ, Future The Prince and Styrofoam Ones’ Josh McGuirk (aka J Charles) have donated exclusive mixtapes and paired up with photographer Yasmine James to offer donors an awesome package to tell someone you care. For a $20 donation to REMIX you can have a mixtape and photo card of your choice delivered by email to your sweetheart Sunday morning. Visit the site, be a digital hero/romantic & jump on this very cool project for a very cool cause.

It is a rare and special thing when a physical space can be offered to multiple creators to promote their ideas, wares, efforts in a place where the art comes first and the venue comes second. Rolly’s Garage was an auto-mechanic garage for over 2 decades but this past year the space has undergone quite the transformation. Becoming home to emerging and established artists of all sorts, Rolly’s Garage is an art venue free of pretentious vibes and chalk full of good ones. Rolly’s daughter {Robin Orbeta-Lacambra} and her partner in good vibes {Tiffany Naval} are dedicated to celebrating the arts in whatever form they come, making it accessible and proving to aspiring artists that it is possible to make a career out of their craft. Rolly’s has hosted such a wide array of creative events, ranging from art exhibitions to plays and crazy parties, giving artists of all kinds a safe space to realize their dreams, adding to the diverse cultural fabric of Toronto.

But as with all great things, some hard work lays ahead to make the future as bright as possible. The space needs some renovations, it needs to meet code and it needs to be rebuilt to officially become the space it has already inspired so many to see it as. Rolly’s Garage has become a hub for a phenomenal Toronto community, a group of inspirational artists that are constantly growing and collaborating and working to better the arts and culture in this city.

Grade Scool very much supports Rolly’s Garage for the Aviva Community Fund. The task at hand is simple. We need to rally the troops and VOTE ONLINE everyday for two weeks. A tiresome task we know for you web weary surfers, but if you can see the value in the project as we do, sign up and vote for Rolly’s Garage for hte Aviva Community Fund at http://bit.ly/t8ayJ

Even better would be to tell your friends on Twitter and Facebook to do the same.

From Alexander The dot com:

My heritage lies in the tribal villages of the Philippines. This video set to Oh Woman is shot with the kids of the Manubo tribes in Mindanao with Kulintang of the Muslim culture in the south. These children are benefiting from the work of the Association for the Rights of Children in South East Asia. Thanks to organizations like ARCSEA that work to protect the rights of children throughout the Philippines, I was able to capture this joy filled video on a beautiful during my travels a short time ago.

Piracy and Civil War is running wild in Somalia, and though a very sensitive issue, we took the time to educate ourselves as best we could as to what the origin of these issues are and in what ways we can further spread awareness to our communities about what we feel is a sad and sorry act of human destruction on the livelihood of fellow people.

The Puntland region of Somalia has been literally raped of its fishing trade for nearly twenty years. Through illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping off the Northern shores of Somalia, the fishing trade for the Somali people has been taken away from them. The issue of the two that bothers us more than anything is that of toxic waste dumping. Accusations have been made since the early 90s accusing Asian and European companies of dumping waste off the northern shores of Somalia which in turn has poisoned the waters, the fish that once made for a popular trade, and the people who live in the Puntland region.

In December 2004, in the wake of the Tsunami that devasted the world, evidence of this dumping was literally thrown ashore as the UN Environmental Program was made witness to barrels of leaking toxic waste that washed up on the Puntland coast due to the power of the Tsunami’s waves. The fishing trade is now next to dead in Northern Somalia, and the people of the region are suffering. From this an industry of piracy, where some act for greed while some act to protect Somalia from the misuse of its ocean waters, has developed into a international issue with few who have any idea how to improve the situation.

We are provided great privilege in Canada, and are very aware of the importance of the fishing industry to our own country’s well being. As people with privilege we can make a difference to this issue that affects the country of origin of an estimated 200,000 fellow Canadians. Grade Scool is committed to doing something to bring greater awareness of this situation to our community. UNICEF is attempting to run primary education programs in the Puntland region that is affected most by this issue. Grade Scool believes that access to information and education is the crucial factor that can improve anyone’s life and so we plan to run a year long campaign in support of UNICEF Somalia in hopes of building a school for the children of the Puntland region.

We are doing this for the betterment of the children of the Puntland region.

How can you help?

1) If it is within your means, buy Grade Scool’s Puntland Pirates tee. Proceeds from the shirt will be collected and donated to UNICEF in support of the primary education programs currently being run in Puntland Somalia.

2) Educate yourself on the issue. Read more than one opinion and then inform others, who ask, about the circumstances that have created the issue of Somali piracy.

3) Follow along with our campaign on facebook or Twitter. Follow either of the links below.

Listen to K’Naan’s Dayless Night. We were made aware of this issue from content put out with Toronto’s K’Naan

The screening will be followed by a special guest panel featuring experts in sustainable food and living hosted by Editor in Chief of Canadian Living Magazine, Susan Antonacci.

Many thanks to Alliance Films for the passes.

Good Luck, Eat Local.

Best of luck. See you at the show.

Housepaint is a street art exhibit drawing attention to issues of poverty and homelessness being held at the Royal Ontario Museum in association with The Institute of Contemporary Culture. The exhibit is a collaboration between ten street artists in memory of the former residents of Tent City. Each artist has painted a coulorful canvas house in their own unique and creative style.

In addition the exhibit features the Housepaint Artist Product Line. Designed and developed by Well and Good in partnership with the participating artists; the line includes limited edition, high-quality items including archival giclée art prints, buttons, postcards and tee shirts, as well as dishtowels and switchplate covers.

Check out Housepaint.ca to find out how you can get some of these crafty pieces and help out a great cause. The project is on display at the ROM until July 5th so go check it out.

H&M and Designers Against Aids have recently released some shots from their lookbook for the upcoming Fasion Against Aids campaign for Summer 09. The collection features some fresh celebrity design collabos including T’s inspired by Katy Perry, Dita Von Teese, N.E.R.D, Estelle, among others. 25% of the sales price will be donated to youth HIV/AIDS awareness projects. The collection, in 100% organic cotton, for both guys and girls will go on sale in H&M’s youth DIVIDED department from May 28 2009.

Check out more starry eyed celebs in T’s after the jump…