Is it possible to place/display an image OVER panels? Everything Ive tried always places the image underneath any panel... The only thing I can come up with, is to create a new Track Info panel containing only the image, and have it overlay everything else - the problem is, then it cant be transparent. Any way to manipulate the "hierarchy" of how elements are displayed?

Panels always go above images, i don't know any way of changing that. And the display order depends on the drawing order.
My track info panel actually is transparent, so i don't see your problem. Why would you want to put a transparent image OVER everything else anyways?

Really? How do you get it to be transparent?? When I clear all the contents of a TIP, it just remains as a gray color...

Umm sorry, I assumed you've been talking about the Track Display Panel. If you really need it to be transparent you could use this instead of the Track info Panel.

Sorry, my mistake in naming it - I AM using Track Display panel. But I still cant get it to be transparent...
The whole idea behind all this, is that I wanted to make a transparent "pause" image, ala Mac OS X, appear over the config when on pause...

Did you take a look at the PanelsUI reference? All you have to do is change the Track Display code. When creating a new Track Display panel it contains the code

changing it to

makes the rectangle transparent. It's all on the PanelsUI wiki page.

AH thats it, thank you! Actually I did try it before, it just didnt appear to work - required a foobar restart. However, its not working completely - the transparency is fine over background and other TrackDisplay panels, but not over a ColumnsUI panel...there it appears as black, not transparent. Oh well, I guess thats the limitation..