Under The Sea

Walt Disney Imagineering has begun installing the audio-animatronic figures in the new $100-million Little Mermaid dark ride at Disney California Adventure in advance of the attraction's June 3 debut. Photos : Concept art for the Little Mermaid dark ride In the last few weeks, crews installed a version of the evil sea witch, Ursula, which at 7 1/2 feet tall and 12 feet wide is one of the largest animatronics ever created by WDI. Located in the marquee scene of the dark ride, the Ursula figure can squash, stretch and bounce along to the music as she sings her big diva musical number, "Poor Unfortunate Souls.

The first phase of the multi-stage unveiling of the Fantasyland makeover has moved into "soft opening" mode in advance of an official unveiling later this month at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Photos: Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom Three years in the making, the new Fantasyland at Orlando's Walt Disney World resort adds a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Seven Dwarfs roller coaster while updating the classic Dumbo ride and recreating the village from "Beauty and the Beast.

The first phase of the multi-stage unveiling of the Fantasyland makeover has moved into "soft opening" mode in advance of an official unveiling later this month at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Photos: Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom Three years in the making, the new Fantasyland at Orlando's Walt Disney World resort adds a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Seven Dwarfs roller coaster while updating the classic Dumbo ride and recreating the village from "Beauty and the Beast.

Walt Disney Imagineering has begun installing the audio-animatronic figures in the new $100-million Little Mermaid dark ride at Disney California Adventure in advance of the attraction's June 3 debut. Photos : Concept art for the Little Mermaid dark ride In the last few weeks, crews installed a version of the evil sea witch, Ursula, which at 7 1/2 feet tall and 12 feet wide is one of the largest animatronics ever created by WDI. Located in the marquee scene of the dark ride, the Ursula figure can squash, stretch and bounce along to the music as she sings her big diva musical number, "Poor Unfortunate Souls.

Never mind clams on the half shell. Try clams on the ceiling--along with an octopus, lobster, dolphin and three starfish. The sea sculptures making a splash on the ceiling of Chaya Venice, an upscale seafood restaurant, are actually handmade lamps. The sea-life shapes are made of tissue-thin rice paper imported from Japan in 22-by-30-inch sheets. The paper is cut into patterns, sculpted over thin wood kite frames and glued to the frame with an invisible wheat paste.

With a spray of water, Guy Gleichmann surfaces from a 40-foot dive during which he helped set his mother's remains in their final resting place: a sunken city where brightly hued fish shimmy among fantastical architecture. "I didn't want to leave," Gleichmann says, doffing mask and mouthpiece. "It's so beautiful down there. It's so serene." The 48-year-old investment manager and diver from Pompano Beach, Fla.

A celluloid-bright yellow submarine of exaggerated cartoon dimensions is now docked at the foot of the Century City Shopping Center. Topped, improbably, with an olive on a toothpick, the new sandwich palace Dive! launches Steven Spielberg as restaurateur (with a little help from Chicago-based Levy Restaurants, which developed and runs the place). Last weekend kids, parents and assorted caretakers in tow, lined up by the hundreds.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach recently hosted the second annual Divers Day, an exhibition of the oldest and the very latest scuba diving equipment with demonstrations by pro divers, including the California Classic Equipment Divers, a group of antique gear fans. Once they caught a breath, we asked a few divers why they're so well suited for the water. * Harold Nething Retired U.S. Navy frogman, 78 Lakewood Tell us about your gear.

Having already seen "Deep Sea 3-D" and "Into the Deep 3-D," you could be forgiven for thinking that Imax has gone to the water well once too often with its latest offering, "Under the Sea 3-D." But practice has delivered something close to perfection as this new film offers a startling experience that takes you down into the Great Barrier Reef without the expense, hypothermia or oxygen tanks. Previous Imax underwater entries dove into the waters off the Americas.

In the wee hours one morning in 2006, the trawler Infidel sank off the southern end of Santa Catalina Island, taking several tons of squid and a 9,000-pound fishing net down with it. The Infidel came to rest on its keel, about 150 feet under the sea. But in the turbid currents, the fine-mesh hemp and polypropylene net -- 40 feet high, several hundred feet long and made to last thousands of years -- wrapped itself around the wreck and became a deadly snare for marine life.

With a spray of water, Guy Gleichmann surfaces from a 40-foot dive during which he helped set his mother's remains in their final resting place: a sunken city where brightly hued fish shimmy among fantastical architecture. "I didn't want to leave," Gleichmann says, doffing mask and mouthpiece. "It's so beautiful down there. It's so serene." The 48-year-old investment manager and diver from Pompano Beach, Fla.

Having already seen "Deep Sea 3-D" and "Into the Deep 3-D," you could be forgiven for thinking that Imax has gone to the water well once too often with its latest offering, "Under the Sea 3-D." But practice has delivered something close to perfection as this new film offers a startling experience that takes you down into the Great Barrier Reef without the expense, hypothermia or oxygen tanks. Previous Imax underwater entries dove into the waters off the Americas.

In the wee hours one morning in 2006, the trawler Infidel sank off the southern end of Santa Catalina Island, taking several tons of squid and a 9,000-pound fishing net down with it. The Infidel came to rest on its keel, about 150 feet under the sea. But in the turbid currents, the fine-mesh hemp and polypropylene net -- 40 feet high, several hundred feet long and made to last thousands of years -- wrapped itself around the wreck and became a deadly snare for marine life.

The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine. The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels apparently containing cocaine, possibly tons of it. The disheveled crew of four had emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, claiming to have shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death.

Archeologists have started exploring a sunken 1st century Roman vessel carrying about 1,500 clay amphorae, some still containing nearly 2,000-year-old fish bones nestled inside. Boaters found its cargo of amphorae in 2000 when their anchor got tangled with one of the two-handled jars. Exploration of the site a mile off Alicante in southern Spain began in July, said Carles de Juan, a co-director of the project, who works for the Valencia regional government.

A leafy, emerald-green algae with the ability to crowd out marine life has been eradicated from a harbor in Huntington Beach and a lagoon in Carlsbad, marking the first time marine biologists have been able to defeat the so-called "killer algae." The fast-spreading algae has ruined fisheries and clogged popular scuba diving sites in the Mediterranean. Marine biologists feared it could do the same if let loose in Southern California's ocean waters.

Angelini Osteria is almost everyone's favorite Italian restaurant in midtown: an informal room with well-designed trattoria cooking, a place to settle into for a plate of bombolotti or a Sunday saltimbocca, where whatever diet you happen to be on at the time will be accommodated without a fuss. Some nights, it feels as if everybody in the room knows one another, but you're in on the party too. You drink well, you eat well and you go home. A lot of chefs have come out of that kitchen, including Ori Menashe of Bestia.

Walking into "Woven Water," Maria Fernanda Cardoso's enchanting installation at Ruth Bloom Gallery, feels like falling into a dream. Thousands of starfish, seashells and sand dollars--suspended from the rafters, attached to the walls and stacked on the floor--make you feel like a big fish in a beautiful aquarium.

BEVERLY HILLS has wealth, power, Rodeo Drive, world-renowned restaurants, celebrity and international mystique, not to mention a one-time hit TV show about people who weren't from around here. About the only thing the city lacks is major nightlife.

By day, Leo Cheng is a NASA engineer who helps coordinate experiments onboard an unmanned spacecraft orbiting Saturn. By night, he's fine-tuning a screenplay about two brothers in a Chinese American family -- one of whom grows up to become a physicist while the other becomes a theater actor. Their relationship is strained when they fall in love with the same woman, and the physicist strives to show the woman that he too has an artistic side.