This is my current Emacs configuration
Simply git clone https://github.com/bartvandendriessche/dotfiles-emacs .emacs.d and
start emacs.
This config uses el-get and bootstraps itself by first downloading and installing el-get, and then downloading and installing any required packages.
If you start emacs a second or third time, and el-get is having trouble loading starter-kit-defuns or some other file, be sure to nuke ~/.emacs.d/.loaddefs.*
El-get messes up loaddefs generation sometimes but deleting them once should be the proverbial bash on the hood to set things straight.
I run Emacs in iTerm2, using the solarized theme as an xterm-256color terminal.
I have emacs aliased to emacsclient -t which will connect
to an existing Emacs server instance, or start one and connect to it
if no Emacs processes are running.