Almost.

Patrick Kirk (PK) Gillock is not the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son of the fabled art director who first put a client’s logo in the lower right-hand corner of the spread (only to be told by the client to move it back to the center of the page and make the wood nymphs larger). But he did follow his father’s footsteps into the industry. He just didn’t stay there.

After ten years as a graphic/web designer in Seattle working for clients like Microsoft (well, not exactly like Microsoft, I hope), PK gave up the unadulterated glamour of the ad biz, sold everything he owned and headed to Thailand. Not to party, but to volunteer in humanitarian relief efforts.

Three years later, in 2005, PK founded Isara (is-ar-uh), a charity that promotes education, health and safety issues, environmental responsibility and technological access to its surrounding Thai neighbors. And it does it mostly through its website, Isara.org – a web portal that “uses 100% of your visits and clicks to create its own humanitarian projects. Each time you visit, search, play a game, or host an image, you are directly helping the less fortunate. Free!”

So instead of making The Rich Jerk richer by clicking links, you actually help people. Who actually need it. It’s madness. Madness.

To supplement this stream of charitable income, PK has decided to attempt something no other human being has ever done. Or should ever do. On August 1, 2008, he’s going to start singing karaoke – poorly – and he’s not gonna stop until 40 hours drop. Why 40 hours? Because the current Guinness record for such karaoke madness is 39 hours. (I know, I thought it would be longer, too. I once used a director who could karaoke for days even though he was a white guy from Toronto.)

Here’s the deal: You visit here and pick a song for PK to sing. Want to torture him by singing the collected, karaoke works of Celine Dion? That’ll fill at least 2 1/2 hours. And you don’t even have to actually listen to him sing! But if you really want to, the record-breaking attempt will be webcast using the latest technology from Father Internet, Al Gore. Isara receives donations just for going to the site and choosing a song; but if you want to spend this year’s non-existent Christmas bonus early, you can also donate $5 for reach song you choose. Now that’s value.

So go on. Donate. Pick some tunes. Feel good about yourself for five minutes before getting back to starbursts and arguing over the finer points of semicolons.

Visit Isara.org and Isara’s Karaoke World Record Attempt for more info.

Later,

Fox