Cougars & Mustangs 

As that most delightful condition--being on break from school--draws to a close, any stray cougars and mustangs roaming around town would do well to spend their final precious days of vacation wisely. Winter quarter at Cal Poly commences on Jan. 7, while Cuesta students have until Jan. 22 to enjoy all a Central Coast winter has to offer (which is pretty much the same as a Central Coast spring, summer, and fall, though you might want to wear a sweater).

The first order of business for eager college students should be the purchase of a 2013 datebook, wherein you can record the numerous can’t-, shouldn’t-, and wouldn’t-miss events being offered by their respective colleges.

For example, Cal Poly Music Department Chair W. Terrence Spiller will be giving a piano recital on Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. in the Spanos Theatre. The Beethoven-themed recital costs $9 for students to attend, and $12 for the public, and proceeds benefit the Cal Poly Music Department Scholarship Fund, which is a very worthy cause indeed.

You might want to pencil in a spare minute or two to hunt down some photos of Tuxedo Air, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona’s joint contribution to the 2013 Tournament of Roses Parade. The collaboration has been going strong for 65 years, and their most recent masterpiece seems to have tickled some funny bones in high places because the float won the Bob Hope Humor Trophy. It’s worth a Google search for a view of the ambitious penguin preparing to slip earth’s surly bonds and dance the sky on laughter-silvered wings.

And, while the year is fresh and ambition courses through your veins, why not channel some of that youthful vigor—the envy of many a world-weary journalist, I can assure you—into drumming up some dates of your own for that empty 2013 datebook? There’s no better time to inspire a flashmob, be host to a dance party, stage a play in Poly Canyon, or—dare I say it?—venture into the surrounding community for artful shenanigans. Commit to making 2013 creative, strange, productive, and enthralling.

Ashley Schwellenbach compiled this week’s Cougars & Mustangs. Send your collegiate news to [email protected].