I'm jumping in the lager thread late, but I enjoy the heck out of lagers.
Pitch cold, without a doubt. The starter you can make at room temp, but pitch it into cold wort. My method, I make my starter at least a week in advance, and crash cool it in the fridge for several days. When I pitch, I take the starter out and decant the starter beer and immediately pitch into my cooled and aerated wort. The starter is colder than the wort, but only by 10 degrees or so.
Bulls Beers, for a helles, definitely follow Kai's advice and look into the water primer too. I make a fantastic helles thanks to these two resources. I use mostly distilled water, a little calcium chloride, and acid malt (I think the acid malt adds some flavor in addition to adjusting the pH, so I think it's necessary). I swear when I take a sip of my helles, if I close my eyes, I'm sitting in Marienplatz outside of Augustiner. Two batches in a row have been identical to my palate.
Good stuff in this thread.