I don't mind the new font so much, so long as there is consistency, and kerning is less an issue, as should be our priorities, of function over form (forum?), to re-create an effective site business model.
The colors, you know my thoughts on these Chelsea, I think they're awesome; a great mix of kind of an 80s look, while adding some modern eye capture glam. Excellent work.
As for the plugins...I'm in the middle. Yes, they're cool, but they seem to take up an incredible amount of valuable real estate on my screen, and it seems that there's a lot of room for potential abuse with them. Maybe that's just the moderator in me talking, though. 
Plug-ins are generally great for a site, and I'm glad to see this, as it helps connect with a metaphorical outside world. However, as CU states, they have abuse potentially, badly, for people who think XYZ is huge news, when it really isn't, or already has a topic of its own. These will require a heavy eye, and perhaps a limit of how many can be placed in a post, as a function of a rule, just to ensure that this does not happen.
Co-sign that they seem a bit big; Drew's photo from Peru is slightly longer than the length of my 15" screen.
In conclusion, yeah, this is really good, but it also requires a bit of oversight that I hope all of us, as staff of this page can bring on a daily basis. While I liked the old theme, change can be good, and often welcomed and needed. With every action, there is a reaction. Let's do our share, and perhaps this, among other steps such as the Facebook page, will be seen as those that brought Golden-Road into the 2010s.
