My conversion is a 1980 Motobecane Super Mirage, nothing rare or desirable, just a really good solid frameset in great condition. It was a total tear-down and rebuild from BB up. I boxed up all the old suntour/sakae components and wheelset just to keep the stuff together, I'm sure it isn't worth anything but I'll hold onto it all for posterity. I plan on getting some hammered aluminum fenders from Velo-Orange and making it my bad weather commuter. My commute is only 12 miles round-trip (time permitting, I make it longer on the way home), mostly good roads so I don't need anything hard-core to get me here and there.
As for trends, I'm usually a late comer too although here on the UW Madison campus there is a pretty large contingent of FG bikes...I'd say pushing 50% of what I actually see rolling (as opposed to left for dead on a very crowded bike rack). Sales may be down but there sure are a lot of them out on the road.
How do you like the Big Block? It was on my shortlist but my LBS swung me a really good deal on an EAI Godzilla and I bit. I used to live in MPLS, so I really like the track ends and they sound like really nice riding frames.