I'm for keeping the same colour scheme, by and large. The same blue, at least. The lines could be a bit softer.

What would be good is an integrated top-level banner design, which most blogs have (e.g. if you look at DailyKos or MyDD, you have a banner that is integrated with the top level design, which still provides some functions).

Use of fancy design elements (especially: sound, animation, video) will cause the site to load slower, which is bad for the people using it the most. I'm for a clearer design, but against using large elements that only have a design functionality.