Alien Bees. Your first set of studio gear are either going to be something used of off craigstlist, or alien bees (if it is something else, you wouldn't be reading this)

Alien Bees are great - with a few caveats. Both their color and their duration change with power output. The latter probably isn't all that much of a big deal to anybody, and presuming you are shooting digital the former is more nuisance than anything.