AT LAST i find someone who agree with me about how ugly the gingerbread bar is!
As for the themes you flash them in recovery, worked great for me so far.
I make my themes (you can choose to only change statusbar) here:
http://uot.dakra.lt/
Just follow the how to guide for finding the framework and systemUI apk and add the theme you want for everything but the statusbar from system --> app folder if you use a CM 7 rom