Is iTunes changing my OS X desktop picture momentarily?

Question

I am running a clean install OS X, including my third-party applications, and this five-year-old machine has never run better. However, an anomaly has arisen. Whenever I push play (iTunes) my desktop picture disappears briefly, replaced by a neutral gray screen, before reappearing.
As I write this, I quit and re-launched iTunes and the problem still exists. I am loathe to restart my computer as I am in the middle of some pressing business. I will check back if a restart resolves this issue, otherwise, feel free to comment.
With iTunes running, pushing Play starts the song and one-second later my desktop picture disappears briefly. Pushing the button (Pause) again stops the song but nothing else happens.
I am currently listening to iTunes DJ and just now the O'Jays started playing and without my doing anything, the desktop picture disappeared and reappeared. I have iShowUHD and will make a recording of it, if it continues.
TIA

Answer 1

You're very welcome.
Completely unrelated, albeit unsettlingly too coincidental, was a sudden slow down (freezing) of my Safari and other internet functions. It's like a UFO landed on my roof and scrambled my Mac's internal settings. Apparently, this same UFO flew across the state, because this occurred simultaneously with 3 different people, me and 2 of my friends, all in 3 seperate counties.
The other things we had to do to get our Macs back to resembling "normal" was...
Turn OFF iCloud unless you really need it (you could lose all Calendar events - Thanks, Apple!) or you're using a screamingly fast connection. - It ties up your modem, especially DSL.
Make your first DNS entry "2001:4860:4860::8888". - It speeds up accessing webpages. (Without quotes. Yes, there is a colon-colon, it's not an error. Weird numbers, I know.)
Set your ethernet's MTU to "Manual" with a number lower than 1500. Try "1460". - Apparently, your Mac is trying to bite off more than it can chew. MTU is the maximum ethernet byte size.
I found all of these tips scattered within the Apple Discussion areas. Do a search on them for more information on how to make these adjustments (don't worry, just system prefs changes, no UNIX is necessary).
This could apply to only older (more than 3 years) Macs. Still a pain nonetheless.
Side note: Starting at the sametime, 2 of us are experiencing random system-wide Kernal Panics and freezing. One Mac panics over 8 times per day, the other about once every 2 days. If our 7th trip (in 2 months) to the Genius bar miraculaously nets a solution, I'll post it.
If you are a conspiracy theorist, you'd be in heaven. An undisclosed virus? ...from Microsoft? Apple or Intel (both?) intentionally crippling old Macs, and forcing purchasing of new computers? ... and is this a test for installing (BIOS) programmed obsolescence/aging into current computers? Why no offer for replacement after 6 failed repair attempts? Is Apple quietly reducing expensive programming staff (sloppy coding, numerous updates, no OSX Server, reduced Pro apps, just as MS is dying) with cheap unknowledgeable retail staff? Mountain Lion and iTunes 11, more eye candy, less innovation... much like MS Windows 8.   Something's afoot.