I'm not an expert in photography, but my first "good" 35mm
camera was (and is) a Pentax K1000. It's a strictly manual
camera. Some refer to it as a "student" camera. I learned
how to use it on my own, after reading up on the subject,
and it was fairly easy to do. It has a built in (averaging)
light meter, and that allows you to concentrate a bit more
on composition etc.

My philosophy when deciding to buy it was that I wanted to
have as much creative control and flexibility as possible.
I knew that at that point I didn't have any experience in
photography, but that's never scared me off of anything
before :-) With some time and good books on the subject I
knew that I'd either learn or would sell the camera off.

Looking back, the only regret I have about the K1000 is the
lack of high quality lenses to fit it. I generally prefer
primes (i.e. fixed focal length, non-zooms) because I think
they are better optimized for their given focal length.

If I had it to do over again I would've gotten a Nikon, if
for no other reason than there is a much better selection
of quality (e.g. Nikkor) prime lenses on the market for it.
It's a very well supported brand of camera.

I currently also have a Canon Powershot G2 digital camera,
which has lots of automatic features. The only automatic
mode I use is Aperture Priority mode. This allows me to
control the f-stops manually, and therefore control the
depth of field. And that's just for quick shots when I
don't want to be slowed down by having to set the shutter
speed. Otherwise I shoot in Manual mode. With that in mind,
I figure that I spent extra money on a lot of fancy features
that I never use. That's a shame.

The moral of this story is, if you buy a strictly automatic
camera, you'll outgrow it in no time. If you buy a good
manual camera, you'll grow into it in no time.

I'd recommend Nikon. Buy a good used one from a reputable
camera shop and you'll save even more money.