Melrose Avenue - not "Melrose Place" from the old television show - is where the excruciatingly hip and cutting-edge hang out. The core area, forming the southern border of Hollywood, from Highland to Fairfax, is all that people expect when they imagine stars shopping for what no one else has yet considered imperative to wear, or dropping into some new restaurant for what no one else has yet considered appetizing. It's a bit of the Village in New York and the Marais in Paris (lots of hip French industry folks and pop stars stop by) - with celebrities and seedy but cool locals. Melrose to the west becomes tame (Melrose Place itself is full of expensive antique shops), and to the east it becomes industrial.

Click here for a photo album of sixty shots from Thursday, November 10, 2005 - late morning, before the action.

Here are a few in high-resolution.