Michel, please consider hiring a graphic designer for a day! I'm about to agree with Michel for the 2nd time in a month - I actually don't mind the new screen....at least it looks better than the previous one (at least to me).
I think people who come to the main page are likely to know "something" about the content to begin with - and so I'm not sure I agree with Craig. (Then again, this is largely subjective...I certainly don't disagree with making a site "lean and mean", but at least I don't dislike the new main page as much as others seem to)