Fixie?

How many of you commute to work? We live in NorCal, so the commuting is set up for us through nature. I've been looking at some bikes lately and geez, what's up with all the fixed gear bikes??? Hipster colors, single speed, riding backwards? What is going on? Gone are the days of riding uphill pumping your legs at 3200 rpm. It's now about leather seats and retro colors.

Not sure if I'm down with the fixie just yet, I need those extra gears to make it up some hills on my journey. But it would be pretty sweet to ride that thing backwards once in a while.