Groovy Marcia!

Bejeweled Hammond B-3 organist Korla Pandit surfaces in the TV portion of "Exotica Music Films."

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More About

• Yma Sumac
• Gary Morris
• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room
• Television
• Sitcoms

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Two of the more rarefied musical realms, the lounge and the garage, are on gaudy display in a three-part series at Yerba Buena, "The Secret Cinema." The first two nights, "Exotica Music Films," feature an enticingly bizarre tour of the mostly postwar world via screaming divas (Yma Sumac soundies), camp divertissements (Maria Montez movie trailers), and kitsch-o-ramas (smirking twin Playboy Bunny types singing "Quando Quando Quando" in haute lounge couture). Speaking of insanity, a highlight is an extended sample of Korla Pandit, an early TV star whose sole shtick consisted of a half-hour of playing mood-drenched organ pieces while staring with his huge compound eyes into the camera. If these aren't lure enough, how about the program's third show: "Sitcom Rock"? Here cognitive dissonance reaches new levels as the always terrifying Brady Bunch annihilate "It's a Sunshine Day" and garage faves the Seeds (as the Warts) torment four doddering sitcom stars of the forgotten '60s comedy The Mothers in Law with "Pushin' Too Hard." Less threatening but equally amusing is the Standells' performance on an episode of The Munsters, covering "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and introducing a dance that inexplicably failed to ignite: the Ringo! "Exotica Music Films" screens at 8 p.m. Wednesday, "Exotica Films 2: Music and More!" at 8 p.m. Friday, and "Sitcom Rock" at 9 p.m. Saturday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room, 701 Mission (at Third Street), S.F. Admission is $3-6; call 978-ARTS. --Gary Morris