Designing a minimalist Twitter page

I gave my Twitter page an overhaul. Designing a Twitter page is tricky:

1. On small screens the side bar on the left gets eliminated
2. A twitter stream is a cacophony of links, icons, avatars, buttons

Here is the approach I took:

1. Minimize the use of distracting colors that only add to the chaos of avatars and links
2. Use a background image that gives a sense of open space, with a light source from the top, and minimal visual distractions
3. Invert the colors of the right side bar: really dark semitransparent background, with a white font (it will look a bit weird in the Twitter style editor). I find it very hard to get any color to look good here, because the semi-transparent setting will make any of your choices look pale.
4. The same is true for links, I struggle to find good link colors and as a result set them light grey. Most Twitter links are shortened URLs that people do not need to read anyway. The alternative would have been to pick a very bright one with high contrast, but that would only add to the cacophony of the page.

What do you think?