item colors

Ok, so how do I get my calendar items to have a color bar over them like I used to? It seems like it must be possible when you consider that the EVENTS I CANNOT DELETE FROM MY CALENDAR, you know the ones that Apple has seen fit to force upon me, all have the exact type of color bar I am trying to use.

Those little dots of color are barely distinguishable from each other if the color is too similar and that does me no good when glancing at 24 calender items in one day and they all have color pin ****** that are either black, blue, green, brown or any other color dark enough to appear black at that size.

Mavericks is so dissapointing thus far....