I've got a bunch of tires lying around that are in various stages of death. I had a set of Conti 1000's on my road bike that I moved onto the fixie when I got new Michelin's for the roadie. Then I gota new wheelset for my single speed, so now I have a set of Bontrager dual-compound race-lite tires (I like them fine; I wouldn't have paid for them if they weren't part of the deal I got on the Botrager Race wheelset). The Conti 1000's got a lot of good miles before they started to go, but the sidewalls started to show threads after a couple thousand miles and there are some monster cuts in them. The fixie is now running a set of the Specialized all-conditions Armadillos (23c), which I picked up on the cheap at the LBS. I think they're great tires. The road feel is nothing I'd race on, but for commuting and riding around town, they're great. As for colors . . . the sidwall of the Armadillo's is a dusty red color. The tread itself is black with a bit of a directional pattern.
BTW: I had a (yes, one) gatorskin on the back of the roadie for a while after I toasted another rear tire on a piece of a broken bottle. I thought it was a fine tire. I never had a flat on it in the 2 years I rode it and I thought it handled fine. Is it just me, or are your impressions of handling with tires very different, front and back? I feel like I'm always more conscious of the handling on the front wheel than I am in the rear. Just curious.